“The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism” is written by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak. The author is a reporter for the U.S. News & World Report. The author has written this article to explain how and why such instances as Abu Ghraib and others are being allowed to occur. The author claims that the isolation of the prison, and the natural cruelty that is present in humans is the main reason that the atrocities are being allowed to occur. However, the author fails to recognize the ways that authority figures are involved in the acts of torture that are being committed.
One of the examples that the author uses to support her theory is an experiment conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram. This experiment helps to show how each individual
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The authority figures in the army place a little over 450 soldiers in a prison holding over 7,000 prisoners. This causes a great deal more stress on the guards then there would normally have been, even in a war situation. Normally the soldiers would have some small releases for their tension; however, in their situation they do not even have this.
The author uses this to explain how the circumstances of war influenced the soldier's mentality. However, she fails to address the actual problem seen in this situation. The problem being shown is not a failure to release tension in the soldiers; but is in the authority figures that fail to place a reasonable amount of guards in the prison. Thereby causing the guards to be more willing to act with extreme force.
The most obvious and completely overlooked piece of evidence in this article is a seemingly simple sentence that changes the whole argument included within the article. “The guards at Abu Ghraib were told that they were merely “softening up” the prisoners for interrogation”(Szegedy-Maszak 77). This sentence is the one piece of evidence that clearly shows how it is not the soldiers fault, but authority figures. The only ones who can order the soldiers to act this way is their commanding
Baumrind, Diana. “Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience”. Writing & Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahey and Christine R. Farris. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. 224-229. Print.
Stanley Milgram, author of "The Perils of Obedience," conducted an experiment at Yale University to see if average citizens would partake in a study revolving around obedience to authority (Milgram 78). In said experiment, a professor from Yale would give an ordinary individual the authority to shock another person. If the ordinary individual asked to stop, the professor would coax them to continue and remind them they hold no responsibility (78). Not only did Milgram 's study revolve around obedience to authority, it also stressed the point of every person could be capable of torture and doing so without feeling responsible. In the article, "The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism," author Marianne Szegedy-Maszak states, anyone can
Upon analyzing his experiment, Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, concludes that people will drive to great lengths to obey orders given by a higher authority. The experiment, which included ordinary people delivering “shocks” to an unknown subject, has raised many questions in the psychological world. Diana Baumrind, a psychologist at the University of California and one of Milgram’s colleagues, attacks Milgram’s ethics after he completes his experiment in her review. She deems Milgram as being unethical towards the subjects he uses for testing and claims that his experiment is irrelevant to obedience. In contrast, Ian Parker, a writer for New Yorker and Human Sciences, asserts Milgram’s experiments hold validity in the psychological world. While Baumrind focuses on Milgram’s ethics, Parker concentrates more on the reactions, both immediate and long-term, to his experiments.
In Lauren Slater’s book Opening Skinner’s Box, the second chapter “Obscura” discusses Stanley Milgram, one of the most influential social psychologists. Milgram created an experiment which would show just how far one would go when obeying instructions from an authoritative figure, even if it meant harming another person while doing so. The purpose of this experiment was to find justifications for what the Nazi’s did during the Holocaust. However, the experiment showed much more than the sociological reasoning behind the acts of genocide. It showed just how much we humans are capable of.
The motives are very clear as mentioned in the article. Thus it‘s justifiable to let our soldiers
A natural response to such a violent environment is to simply behave in a way that portrays no weakness. If the soldier does not show any signs of weakness, he finds it much easier to convince himself that he can survive by his strength. In asserting his control over himself by hiding all of his weaknesses, h...
Everyone in this world lives under a certain set of circumstances. These circumstances are like barrels, and these barrels shape others in certain ways depending on what are inside them. Phil Zimbardo became an expert witness for one of the guards from Abu Ghraib because when the Bush Administration and the military General said
Again the subjects surroundings and the authority over them affects the way they act and what they’ll do. In his experiment he put flyers out around town to get random subjects. He was offering four dollars and fifty cents for one hours work at the time people needed that kind of money to put food on the table so as he expected he had tons of subjects to choose from. He choose very specific subjects all men in the ages from 20 to 50 with different occupations.When he choose the subjects they didn’t know it would be a test of their obedience to authority even in crazy situations, but of their memory. Two subjects would go in at a time but one was an actor set by the experimenter and the other the actual subject. They were told that one person would be the teacher and the other the learner or student and that this would be selected randomly.But what the subject didn’t know is the actor was already the learner there was no random selection the experimenter just wanted it to seem that way so the teacher subject would truly believe it. After that each of them were strapped to a chair where they received 45 volts of electric shock. Crazy right well listen to this, the so called learner was to be strapped to the chair while the so called teacher would say a phrase and the learner would repeat it back. If he messed up the teacher would shock the learner with 45 volts
As stated previously the results of this study came with shock some value along with affirmation for many theorists. “Correctional officers work directly with inmates, and their perceptions of inmates either enhance or reduce the possibility of stress” (Misis, Kim, Cheeseman, Hogan, and Lambert, 2013). This study opened the door for psychologist to continue to research the ramifications of incarcerations in many realms and spectrums. The rapid deterioration of the mock inmates due to the immediate acceleration of aggression by the subject prison guards, enables psychologist to test the theory of inhumanity by ways of social behavior social
Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne. "The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism." Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Custom, 2009. 210-12. Print.
Until there is a credible way to determine whether or not torture is in fact effective, I pass judgment that the practice should be discontinued. The question as to if the torture policy is a human rights violation or if it holds crucial necessity, is not answered in the essay. Applebaum explores the reality that torture possesses negative implications on the inflictor. After presented with the compelling stance and evidence, Applebaum raises the interesting question as to why so much of society believes that torture is successful. I agree that the torture policy is wrong, a point emphasized by Applebaum, contrary to the popular attitude surrounding the topic.
We see that the author’s purpose is to allow the readers to understand that the prisoners were not treated humanly, and allows us to see the negative attitudes the authority had towards the prisoners.
Slater, Lauren. Opening Skinner's box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Print.
There is a lot of parts that make a prison operate. From the generators to give out power to the building, to the janitors to keep the building clean and the mail room to sort and pass out the mail that’s comes through. But there is three key parts that make a prison function. One of those parts is; the outside fencing and barbwire that’s wrapped around the building. Without it inmates are able to come and go when they please. No boundaries are set making the jail pointless. A second key part is the commanding officer. His job is to control the inmates on what they do. The officer knows what the inmates are doing through the day, meaning if an inmate did something the officer knows about it. Lastly the holding cell.
And when many of the prisoners tried to peacefully protest these cruel conditions, they were repaid with brutal force. This seems to be an unlikely way to reform or rehabilitate anybody It is believed by many human beings that what goes on behind prison bars is not happening in the society where we live; It is said that prisons are a microcosm of society, what happens in reflects the macrocosm. Comparing and contrasting, what go’s in prisons happens to us on the outside as a