Stanford Prison Experiment

Does prison make the inner demon come out in the prisoner/guard or is the prisoner /guard already wired that way? The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. This experiment was led by a psychology professor named Philip Zimbardo, he had the help of a team of researchers. The purpose of this particular experiment was to induce disorientation, depersonalization, and DE individualization in the participants. After a period of time behind bars everyone would act out of character.
Psychology professor, Philip Zimbardo, and his team of researchers set out to prove whether or not the hypothesis that the inherent personality traits of prisoners and guards are the main cause of abusive
They had over seventy men apply, in order to narrow down who they would pick the applicants had to undergo an extensive number of tests. This was to insure they were not mentally unstable in any way. the experimenters picked twenty-four boys and divided them into two groups.one group being the, “prisoners” and the other group was the, “prison guards”. They were all given details on the experiment, and its seriousness. Each of them were given a consent form to sign. In order to make this all seem real they arrested each prisoner and transported to the make shift jail. When they arrived to the jail they were greeted by the warden, “David Jaffe”, an undergraduate of Stanford University. The warden then would tell each prisoner about the crime they had committed. Quickly after this the prisoners would be strip searched. All the naked prisoners were then sprayed down for lice and bacteria that they could be carrying. This made them extremely uncomfortable. They were then given a uniform with their prison identification number. Each prisoner was to wear a chain around their ankle, this was a method used to manipulate the brain to believe that this was a real prison environment. Now that
The atmosphere the prisoners were put in was just like that of a real prison. Which simulated a true prison life atmosphere. I was not surprised of the outcome. The power the guards were given just took control over them. The experiment was not humane. Seems that when the guards lost control, they got lost between what was real and what was all an experiment and when they lost those senses everything humane was lost as well. One way that could have improved the experiment would have been to give the guards a strict set of guidelines to follow. To have been given specific do’s and don’ts. If these guidelines were broken, then then there would be repercussions. Maybe this way things would not have gotten out of hand. Guards should have been taught principles to improve self-control. In the experiment I saw the law of effect come into play. As the prisoners were treated badly for misbehaving they began to misbehave less. This was due to the reinforcement the guards used. Therefore, operant conditioning had occurred after a few days. This is the process in which, behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences. Punishment was also enforced in this experiment. They used positive reinforcement by rewarding the ones who behaved and put them in the privilege cell. This method of reinforcement was supposed to encourage the person to continue to behave. Dr. Zimbardo, also used what is called observational learning. While the