Abu Ghraib Experiment Ethical Dilemmas

While assessing the Stanford Prison Simulation encounter, I noticed a lot of ethical issues that stemmed from the Psychologist researchers and the guards as well. First and foremost, there were no clear instructions as to what the guards should do to get results for the research and there were no adamant clear instructions as to what the guards could not do to the prisoner’s. The purpose of research is to measure data and its outcome, and ensuring the protection and safety of the subjects involved in the research study. Allowing the continuance of the prisoner’s humiliations, distress, and the abuse of power from the guards, was ethically inappropriate and incorrect. It is morally and ethically incorrect to watch behind the scenes, while such malice intent was being performed and negatively affecting all participants, including the researchers, during the research process and after the study was pulled. Prisoner’s were made to feel as though they could not leave the simulated prison and taunted by the other fellow prisoner’s and guards as well. Imagine being distressed, taunted, and being bribed
The lack of training and clear detailed information of what a soldier should and should not do to a captive, clearly was not communicated. Another issue that was proposed in the Stanford Prison Simulation was the disproportion of guards to prisoner’s, which was also a grand issue in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Few reinforcements with a mass of captives will cause an exhaustive effort to deal with the captives, therefore causing distress and frustration already to a scenario which already has a biased skew towards the captives. Training and in-depth detail of what is expected for the process of handling captives, could have changed the scenario