Stanford Prison Experiment Cons

In 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo attempted to show the world that prison guards and criminals would transition into defining roles. They would behave in a way that they deemed necessary, even if it meant discarding their own judgment and morals. The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted to show the results of individuality and dignity being stripped away from a human, and their life completely controlled. The study was funded by the US Office of Naval Research as both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps were interested in the causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners. If we take normal everyday people and placed them into a stressful negative environment, then do they stay true to their good nature or do they succumb

The prison guards had their pros and cons because they would have complete control but would have the responsibility to keep the prisoners in check. The prisoners, however, only had cons because they would have no control of their daily routine and would be forced into obedience throughout the entire experiment. Zimbardo set up the experiment to mimic actual prison life, but with normal people, who were not trained prison guards or actual criminals thereby testing humanity’s capability to fit into their given social roles and to play that part well. The physiological principles studied in this experiment would be the physiological stress that would be placed on the test subjects during the experiment and the biological trauma they would have to endure during the experiment and after. If put into practical terms, this experiment can raise concern about actual prison life and if it is as terrible as portrayed in the experiment. Also, if people were put into a stressful environment we can test human nature and determine if that kind of environment will bring people together or cause them to turn on one

For any person the information is transmitted from our sensory organs to the brain. Sensory perceptions are transmitted to a section of the brain called the thalamus and from there to two additional areas, the cortex and amygdala. The amygdale are the brains “alarm system,” which is activated by any threat, and is associated with fear and then transmits information to four systems: The amygdale transmits the warning to the hippocampus, which helps provide words for the personal, emotional experience and in creating the proper attitude towards it. From the hippocampus, the information is transmitted to the cortex where, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, the overall experience is evaluated, in light of the person’s previous life experience. At the end of the process, if the threat passes through a signal is sent from the cortex to the amygdale and the experiences is categorized as an experience from the past. From the amygdale, the information also reaches the brain stem, where an order is given to secrete the hormone neuroadrenaline, which reaches all of the body’s organs and instructs them to prepare for a dangerous situation. Neuroadrenaline accelerates the pulse in order to supply more energy and oxygen, to perspire so that it will be