The Stanford Experiment Summary

The Stanford Experiment Summary The Stanford Prison Experiment was an experiment to see what would be the psychological effect of becoming a prison guard or a prisoner. To do the experiment they set up a prison in the basement of Stanford’s Psychology Department Building. They used a sample of 24 students from the U.S. and Canada who were in the Stanford area and wanted to make $15 a day for participating in the study. To begin the experiment the boys were divided into two group half guards and half prisoners. To help get a better prison environment they called the services of experienced consultants. To closely monitor the prisoners they videotaped and recorded the events. One Sunday morning in August a Californian policeman went around town in Palo Alto arresting college students as part of the experiment. The suspects were booked and taken to a holding cell where they were left blindfolded wondering what’s going on. In the process of booking the prisoners a degraded procedure was designed to humiliate prisoner as done in a real facility. They dressed the prisoners in dresses in which they immediately started to walking and sitting differently caring themselves as woman. Some were in smocks and neither of the prisoners was given underclothes. They chained their foot to remind them of their environment. They included visitation, punishment, and a parole board to conduct the prison like a real life facility. Concluding the experiment the chaplain evaluated the prison situation was overly complex and seemingly pointless. As being a prisoner they found that the prisoners felt hopelessly. The prison behavior found that prisoner who endured the process longer was prisoners of a high degree of authority. Prisoners dealt with their feelings and frustration in many ways. Some rebelled and fault with guards, some broke down emotionally, some developed a psychosomatic rash, and others reacted by being good prisoners. The two week prison experiment was called off after six days. When the study end they realized they had created a powerful situation. Prisoners were withdrawing and behaving in pathological ways. Guards felt helpless to intervene. They ended the study for two reasons. For one the guards were escalating their abuse of prisoners. Secondly Christina Maslach, a recent Stanford PhD said “It’s terrible what they were doing to these boys.” When she learned of the situation it was clear the study should be over.