Stanford Prison
The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted at Stanford University from August 14 to August 20 of 1971 by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. Philip Zimbardo is commonly known as the father of social psychology. He is also the author of the Lucifer Effect. A flyer was posted the common area of the Stanford University. It read as follows The original purpose of the experiment was to observe the effect that being in a prison like institutional setting has upon people, and how they react to being placed in positions both with and without authority. The paper read as follows: As it developed however, the experiment quickly spiraled out of control, the “guards” abuse of the “prisoners” became excessive causing them far more trauma than the experiment justified.
Whether the experiment went horribly wrong or horribly right is entirely a matter of opinion, although the “horrible” seems pretty clear cut. The experiment showed how good, perfectly normal people were capable of assuming roles quite contrary to their nature. The guards and prisoners were self-selecting sample groups, offered $15 dollars a day in exchange for their voluntary involvement in the experiment. Their backgrounds were checked to make sure they had no records of mental illness, violence or criminal activity.
These bright, mentally and physically healthy young men were selected at random into 2 groups of nine, one of which were designated as guards, the other as prisoners.
The division was entirely random, the subjects had no way of influencing the selection process and no individual qualities were taken into account.
Although some prisoners later believed that the larger boys had been picked as guards deliberately. In fact a coin had simply been flipped nine times. The experiment got out of control because the subjects entered too deeply into the roles they
Whether the experiment went horribly wrong or horribly right is entirely a matter of opinion, although the “horrible” seems pretty clear cut. The experiment showed how good, perfectly normal people were capable of assuming roles quite contrary to their nature. The guards and prisoners were self-selecting sample groups, offered $15 dollars a day in exchange for their voluntary involvement in the experiment. Their backgrounds were checked to make sure they had no records of mental illness, violence or criminal activity.
These bright, mentally and physically healthy young men were selected at random into 2 groups of nine, one of which were designated as guards, the other as prisoners.
The division was entirely random, the subjects had no way of influencing the selection process and no individual qualities were taken into account.
Although some prisoners later believed that the larger boys had been picked as guards deliberately. In fact a coin had simply been flipped nine times. The experiment got out of control because the subjects entered too deeply into the roles they