Ethical Issues In The Stanford Prison Experiment By Zimbardo

728 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay stanford prison experiments psychologie

After watching the video on the Stanford Prison Experiment, there are substantial amounts of ethical concerns that are seen with the way this study was conducted from beginning to the very end. The first ethical issue perceived to be one of the leading concern in this experiment which was that this experiment overall was gone too far there wasn’t appropriate control or limitation made to this experiment, I think this was mainly was because of the role Zimbardo played in the experiment being an administrator of the prison as well as the doctor who was conducting the study and cause of this he didn’t know where to stop and end his experiment when it was going too far because he became a part of the study. This study was immoral from the beginning …show more content…

Guards were told they couldn't physically hurt the participating prisoners however they utilized mental traps for the prisoners to tune in and comply the guards. The guards knew this was just an experiment, but even when the guards started to become abusive to the prisoners, the experiment was not stopped or even looked upon with a second look. There should have been set boundaries and limits on what the guards could and could not do, but there was essentially none and the prisoners had to endure more than what they should have been allowed and as a result suffered negative outcomes due to …show more content…

As the prisoners were distressed throughout the movie, to the point where the doctors thought this study should stop because it was going too far. The activities that occurred were exceptionally improper, for example, giving food and other nourishment, and influencing it to appear like the participants were being dealt very well with when the prisoner’s families came to visit. Which also raise another point, that if the experiment need to me changed around so partner and outside don’t think it’s that bad that should have been a good sense to when this study became ethical and needed to be stopped, as the objective of the experiment need to be tweaked around and thought about. As really participating innocent individuals were tormented with no advantage to themselves or the study really because to me it didn't seem to be work $15 anymore. The moves that made place amid this investigation are of moral concern with respect to the moral standard of

Show More
Related

  • The Lucifer Effect By Phillip Zimbardo And Hard Measures By Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.

    1606 Words  | 4 Pages

    Things have gotten too out of hand, and situations will get much worse. Ethically speaking, Zimbardo made the right call because if the experiment continues, it would have been detrimental to the prisoner’s psyche. Zimbardo explains the event that occurred by stating, “The power of this situation ran swiftly and deeply through most of those on this exploratory ship of human nature. Only a few were able to resist the situational temptations to yield to power and dominance while maintaining some semblance of morality and decency. Obviously, I was not among the noble class (171).” By saying this, Zimbardo is fully aware that he let things get out of hand too

    Read More

  • The Implications of the Stanford Prison Experiment

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Implications of the Stanford Prison Experiment In 1971 Dr Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment in the basement of Stanford University. This involved imprisoning nine volunteers in a mock up of Stanford prison, which was policed by nine guards (more volunteers). These guards had complete control over the prisoners. They could do anything to the prisoners, but use physical violence.

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment: Taking a Deeper Look

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    By the flip of a coin, 12 members were assigned to act as prison guards and the other 12 members were assigned to act as the prisoners. According to the source Stanford Prison Experiment it states, “The guards were given no specific training on how to be guards.” The assigned guards were free at will, to do what they believed what needed to be done to keep order within the prison walls. The experiment contained three different types of guards that acted out in the experiment. One-third of...

    Read More

  • Ethical Boundaries In The Stanford Prison Experiment

    128 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many ethical boundaries were crossed in the Stanford Prison Experiment. Abuse was not limited to physical, but also psychological (Burgemeester, 2011). In the movie The Stanford Prison Experiment, which depicts events that actually occurred, the guards played physiological tricks on the prisoners. The prisoners were lead to believe that they actually committed crimes and couldn’t leave the experiment. One main thing that the guards did to physically and psychologically harm the prisoners was to tamper with their sleeping schedules. They would wake the prisoners on the middle of the night and have them do exercises, and once they were done they were permitted to go back to sleep (Ratnesar, 2011). By doing this the prisoners lose sense of what

    Read More

  • The Power of Force: Human Behavior Under Pressure

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this study Zimbardo chose 21 participants from a pool of 75, all male college students, screened prior for mental illness, and paid $15 per day. He then gave roles. One being a prisoner and the other being a prison guard, there were 3 guards per 8 hour shift, and 9 total prisoners. Shortly after the prisoners were arrested from their homes they were taken to the local police station, booked, processed, given proper prison attire and issued numbers for identification. Before the study, Zimbardo concocted a prison setting in the basement of a Stanford building. It was as authentic as possible to the barred doors and plain white walls. The guards were also given proper guard attire minus guns. Shortly after starting the experiment the guards and prisoners starting naturally assuming their roles, Zimbardo had intended on the experiment lasting a fortnight. Within 36 hours one prisoner had to be released due to erratic behavior. This may have stemmed from the sadistic nature the guards had adopted rather quickly, dehumanizing the prisoners through verbal, physical, and mental abuse. The prisoners also assumed their own roles rather efficiently as well. They started to rat on the other prisoners, told stories to each other about the guards, and placated the orders from the guards. After deindividuaiton occurred from the prisoners it was not long the experiment completely broke down ethically. Zimbardo, who watched through cameras in an observation type room (warden), had to put an end to the experiment long before then he intended

    Read More

  • Comparison Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Stanford Prison Experiment many of the prisoners obeyed the guards even though they were in such extreme discomfort mentally to not have to face the harsher treatments of not obeying them. However, not all of them followed their order and kept protesting their inhuman orders, even knowing with the harsh treatment that came afterwards. Like the Milligram Experiment, the teachers understood the harsh pain they were enlisting into the students, they continued the orders of the experiment to increase the shocks after every wrong answer. Then again, like the Stanford Experiment, not all of them followed the order of guards as did a few of the teachers in the Milligram experiment. Two prisoners left the Stanford experiment and presumably the same could be said for the Milligram

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo

    487 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment commenced in 1973 in pursuit of Zimbardo needed to study how if a person are given a certain role, will they change their whole personality in order to fit into that specific role that they were given to. Zambrano significantly believed that personality change was due to either dispositional, things that affect personal life and make them act differently. Or situational, when surrounded by prisoners, they can have the authority to do whatever they want without having to worry about the consequences. Furthermore, it created a group of twenty-four male participants, provided them their own social role. Twelve of them being a prisoners and the other twelve prison guards, all of which were in an examination to see if they will be able to handle the stress that can be caused based upon the experiment, as well as being analysis if their personality change due to the environment or their personal problems.

    Read More

  • Zimbardo's Prison Experiment, And The Stanford Prisoner Experiment

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    How would you act if you were locked up in a concentration camp and the guards made you suffer? If I were in there, I would listen to the guards because I want less suffered. In addition, I would not try to stand out in the crowed to receive punishment by the guards. In the Movie, The Stanford Prison Experiment, students were split to be two group, guards and prisoner. In the oppressive environment and authority to the guards, the guards were out of control, and they kept on punish prisoner until they broke down. The prisoners were treated as less than human, and they won’t get what they need. Furthermore, these guards will act more aggressive every day to try to force the prisoner to conform. In the film The Stanford Prisoner Experiment, the guards become immoral because they got

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment Review

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Stanford Prison Experiment, a study done with the participation of a group of college students with similar backgrounds and good health standing who were subjected to a simulated prison environment. The participants were exposed completely to the harsh environment of a real prison in a controlled environment with specific roles of authority and subordinates assigned to each individual. The study was formulated based on reports from Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky had spent four years in a Siberian prison and his view on how a man is able to withstand anything after experiencing the horrors of prison prompted Dr. Philip Zimbardo a Professor of Psychology at Stanford and his

    Read More

  • The Milgram Experiment: The Stanford Prison Experiment

    2182 Words  | 5 Pages

    The day before the experiment, the researchers held and orientating session where they instructed the guards not to physically harm the prisoners but said them to create atmosphere in which the prisoners feel

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo

    1885 Words  | 4 Pages

    Social psychology is an empirical science that studies how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. This field focuses on how individuals view and affect each other. Social psychology also produces the idea of construals which represent how a person perceives, comprehends or interprets the environment. Construals introduce the idea that people want to make themselves look good to others and they want to be seen as right. It is also said that the social setting in which people interact impacts behavior, which brings up the idea of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the idea that behavior is a function of the person and the environment.

    Read More

  • The Ethics of the Stanford Prison Experiment

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin the experiment the Stanford Psychology department interviewed middle class, white males that were both physically and mentally healthy to pick 18 participants. It was decided who would play guards and who would be prisoners by the flip of a coin making nine guards and nine prisoners. The guards were taken in first to be told of what they could and could not do to the prisoners. The rules were guards weren’t allowed t o physically harm the prisoners and could only keep prisoners in “the hole” for a hour at a time. Given military like uniforms, whistles, and billy clubs the guards looked almost as if they worked in a real prison. As for the prisoners, real police surprised them at their homes and arrested them outside where others could see as if they were really criminals. They were then blindfolded and taken to the mock prison in the basement of a Stanford Psychology building that had been decorated to look like a prison where guards fingerprinted, deloused, and gave prisoners a number which they would be calle...

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    Would you go into prison to get paid? Do you believe that you will come out the same or become different? Do not answer that. The Stanford Prison Experiment was an experiment that was conduct in 1971 by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. Seventy applicants answered the ad and were narrowed down to 24 college students, which half were assigned either to be guards or prisoners by random selection. Those 24 college students were picked out from the of 70 applicants by taking personality tests and given diagnostic interviews to remove any candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse. The experiment lasted six days but it was supposed to last two weeks, it was so traumatizing that it was cut short. Zimbardo was the lead researcher and also had a role in pretend prison. Zimbardo’s experiment was based on looking

    Read More

  • Summary Of A Prison Experiment

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    These strict guidelines along with over 10 others helped shape the prison. The guards at the beginning of the experiment formed these guidelines. Their authority, from the start, was absolute. They did not allow prisoners to speak, eat or even use the restroom without permission. Sometimes, unimaginably, the inmates were not granted permission. Day one of the experiment was full of confusion and learning for everyone involved. The events

    Read More

  • Social Psychology and the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo

    2259 Words  | 5 Pages

    Social psychology is an empirical science that studies how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. This field focuses on how individuals view and affect one another. Social psychology also produces the idea of construals which represent how a person perceives, comprehends or interprets the environment. Construals introduce the idea that people want to make themselves look good to others and they want to be seen as right. It is also said that the social setting in which people interact impacts behavior, which brings up the idea of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the idea that behavior is a function of the person and the environment.

    Read More

More about Ethical Issues In The Stanford Prison Experiment By Zimbardo

Open Document