The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment
Following the American Psychological Associations guidelines
Zachary Hudson
Waterford District High School
Abstract
The Stanford prison experiment, an unethical experiment created to study human nature in the most hellish of environments. Regular students were deceived into applying for the experiment itself and later regretted the choice because of the events that occurred during the short time that experiment ran in. The experiment ran and quickly became more than expected by the research team; prisoners became children, guards became sadistic monsters and hell itself happened. The connection between reality and role-playing quickly happened as guards and prisoners alike assumed their roles in the simulated prison life. Peer pressure played a major role in the experiment for it showed that within the conditions it could control and manipulate people into doing terrible things to themselves or others. Prison culture was defined and learned through this experiment, most of the information gained was shocking and appalling but was necessary for learning about prison in a way no human being could other than experiencing it for themselves. This experiment was very unethical and could’ve been conducted in a safer way but Zimbardo never thought the experiment would get out of hand in the way that it did. Zimbardo truly isn’t to blame in this situation, the only thing to blame here is human nature.
The Stanford Prison experiment was a psychological experiment preformed in 1971 at Stanford University, the role of this experiment was to research the effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was a trial that ran August 14th to August 20th by a team of researchers lead by the psychology professor Phillip Zimbardo who is a psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. The aim of this experiment was to see how readily people would conform to the
Following the American Psychological Associations guidelines
Zachary Hudson
Waterford District High School
Abstract
The Stanford prison experiment, an unethical experiment created to study human nature in the most hellish of environments. Regular students were deceived into applying for the experiment itself and later regretted the choice because of the events that occurred during the short time that experiment ran in. The experiment ran and quickly became more than expected by the research team; prisoners became children, guards became sadistic monsters and hell itself happened. The connection between reality and role-playing quickly happened as guards and prisoners alike assumed their roles in the simulated prison life. Peer pressure played a major role in the experiment for it showed that within the conditions it could control and manipulate people into doing terrible things to themselves or others. Prison culture was defined and learned through this experiment, most of the information gained was shocking and appalling but was necessary for learning about prison in a way no human being could other than experiencing it for themselves. This experiment was very unethical and could’ve been conducted in a safer way but Zimbardo never thought the experiment would get out of hand in the way that it did. Zimbardo truly isn’t to blame in this situation, the only thing to blame here is human nature.
The Stanford Prison experiment was a psychological experiment preformed in 1971 at Stanford University, the role of this experiment was to research the effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was a trial that ran August 14th to August 20th by a team of researchers lead by the psychology professor Phillip Zimbardo who is a psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. The aim of this experiment was to see how readily people would conform to the