Zimbardo Experiment Unethical

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Recommended: Critique of the stanford prison experiment

In the film on the 5 most disturbing and unethical human experiments concerning the MK Ultra experiment conducted by the CIA. I found that as unethical and inhuman this experiment was; the experiment was very scientific. The experiment was incredibly unethical with causalities associated with the project, it was very scientific with the purpose using drugs and other methods in an attempt to alter one’s mind state.

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Although the Stanford prison experiment was a very unethical experiment, the research conducted was very scientific. The psychological research done in the Stanford prison experiment included observing how readily people would imitate roles of a guard and prisoner. Quantitative and qualitative data were recorded in order to find out whether the brutality among the guards was due to the personality of the guards (dispositional) or due to the social environment of the prisons (situational) (McLeod 1970). Concluding the research, Zimbardo experiment proved and supported that people’s conformity is more situational (environment) than dispositional (personality).

Psychological research must meet certain criteria in order to be considered scientific. Here are some of the criteria and how it applies to The Stanford prison experiment.
• Replicable- Although the …show more content…

When conducting a psychological research, consent and detailed debriefing of risks should be outlined to the participants. This fault could be seen in the Stanford prison experiment, as if the participants were informed that they will be psychologically and mentally scared, they would have withdrawn from the experiment beforehand. With these type of experiments, less people would be interested in participating for psychological researches. Without these ethical principles in place, research as a whole could be disastrous and

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