Preview

Zimbardo

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
350 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Zimbardo
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
Aim: To investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner.
Participants:
21 males from over 70 volunteers were chosen and paid $15 for each day.
Students were randomly assigned to play a different role.

Procedure:
Zimbardo converted the basement of the Stanford Psychology building into a mock prison.
Advertised for students to play either a role of prison guard or prisoner for 2 weeks.
Guards were also issued a khaki uniform, together with whistles, handcuffs and dark glasses, to make eye contact with prisoners impossible.
When the prisoners arrived at the prison they were stripped naked, deloused, had all their personal possessions removed and locked away.
The prisoners were referred by their number only.
There were 3 guards to the 9 prisoners, taking shifts of eight hours each.
Results:
The guards adapted to their role quickly and easily. They began to harass the prisoners and behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner, it also looked like they were enjoying it. The prisoners were insulted and given petty orders, they were also given pointless and boring tasks to complete, and they were generally dehumanised. The prisoners were soon adopted to the environment and started to take the prison rules very seriously. Over the next few days, the prisoners changed their attitude towards the guards and became dependent on them. They also submissively behaved in the prison while the guards became more aggressive with a demand of greater obedience from the prisoners.
Within a few days into the experiment, 4 participants withdrew after showing signs of emotional disorder and could have had lasting consequences. Zimbardo closed down the experiment after running for 6 days.
Conclusion:
People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are as strongly stereotyped. Therefore, the roles that people play can shape their behaviour and attitudes.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psy101week6Document

    • 366 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A.The instructions given to the guards B.The actions of the prisoners C.The social context D.Peer pressure from other guards…

    • 366 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When people are given little to no direction or training, and are faced with dealing with people they may perceive as a threat to their own safety and the well-being of others, they have a propensity to overstep what most would consider reasonable behavior. The “guards” in the experiment were put into a position of authority and took the steps they deemed necessary to maintain order. In spite of the fact that they knew it was an experiment, they were immersed in the situation and played the role given them. The “prisoners” played their part and were so wholly immersed in the role and the environment that their entire perspective of reality was altered. They began to believe they were helpless and unable to help themselves out of the situation they found themselves. They had become powerless to change the situation, in spite of the fact that it was just an…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Control of the experience was quickly lost. The prisoners have suffered - and accepted - treatment humiliating and sometimes sadistic on the part of the guards, and in the end many of them suffered from a severe emotional disturbance.Experience…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also, the prisoners at first were employed as laborers in the construction of the camp. Consequently, the prisoners would get medical treatment denied so if they got a disease they would die. They were not allowed to talk to each other if they did their punishment was death or less food than the others. Most deaths from the camp came from diseases and lack of food and water. In…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The prisoners were forbidden to speak to anyone but the guards and they weren’t even allow the exchange eye contact with other prisoners. The prisoners would get beaten daily they would be forced to sing and whistle while getting rocks thrown at them. The guards would constantly tease and mentally abuse the prisoners by humiliating them, bringing up past events and make them feel less of a…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    A controversial experiment by Zimbardo (1971) (Spoors et al.) shows how a groups of males were separated into two groups of guards and prisoners in a make shift prison. After six days of a two week experiment it was stopped. The guards became abusive while the prisoners showed signs of emotional disturbance.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    4) If you were a prisoner, would you have been able to endure the experience? What would you have done differently than those subjects did? If you were imprisoned in a "real" prison for five years or more, could you take…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The camp underwent a full reconstruction. Women were forced to use their hairbrushes and toothbrushes to clean the streets (Esbrook 5). Buildings were repaired and repainted. Flower beds were reconstructed to create a false facade. Playgrounds were designed for the children to play on, but were used only when the inspectors came. In addition, a Council of Elders was established to create the idea that the prisoners had their own form of government (Intrator 515). In reality, the Council help no power. The camp also created a “system of commerce”, which was actually meaningless money that was never used. The project was a fool tactic designed to impress the Red Cross and mask the barbarity beneath the surface (Esbrook…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some of the awful things done to the prisoners were caging the prisoners, confinement deprived of clothing, and painful bodily restraint. When the movement began, there were a lot of confined individuals who wouldn’t be in prison today let alone imprisoned together with hardened criminals. Children, women, men, and the mentally ill were all thrown together with the most dangerous of society. There was no treatment for mental illness. The so-called…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Witch Hunt Research

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages

    put into jail and trial. Because of this jails were over crowded, conditions were unsanitary,…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Institutional Aggression

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Prisoners bring their own social histories and traits with them into prison and this influences their adaptation to the prison environment. Prisoners are not ‘blank slates’ when they enter prison and that many of the normative systems developed on the outside would be ‘imported’ into the prison. E.g. violent prisoners import their cultural norms that condone violent behaviour…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the centuries, both the system and the concept of prison have undergone many radical changes that eventually led to the formation of the prison as we know it now. In the 16th and 17th centuries, prison tended to be a place where criminals were kept in it while awaiting their punishment. It was a place, where criminals were held, rather than a means of punishment. In fact, criminals, at that time, were publically punished, rather than imprisoned, in the most torturous ways such as whipping, and slaughtering. However, in the 18th century, people in charge decided to put an end to these cruel methods of punishing. They came up with new methods of punishing instead of using torture in punishing criminals. In fact, the incarceration with hard labor was the new method of punishing criminals. Thus, the prison itself became a tool of punishment.…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    19th century prison reform

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Prior to the reformation of the prison systems in Europe in the 19th century, there were no standards for the treatment of prisoners. They were treated like animals, and nobody gave it a second thought. After observing these conditions, several prominent figures emerged and dedicated their lives to the betterment of the conditions in prisons. Reformers such as John Howard (1726-1790) and Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) exposed the horrible conditions in prisons. This paper will cover the horrendous conditions of the prisons which necessitated reform, the outdated methods of punishment, and the new standards for prisons after the reforms. Books on the observations of the reformers, and accounts of their lives will be used as the primary evidence in this investigation.…

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    d. What prevented "good guards" from objecting or countermanding the orders from tough or bad guards? The only thing keeping the “good guards” from objecting or countermanding the other guards was the empathic concern towards the experimental subjects.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When asked by the prison guard what the prisoner would do in his place, the prison…

    • 1764 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays