Research Ethics Stanford Prison Experiment Summary Essay
The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) was carried out in 1971 by Stanford University in the basements of the mindset building.
Philip Zimbardo since lead investigator headed the investigation team to analyze the impact of situational parameters on individual behaviour. Zimbardo and his team promoted for volunteers to a sociable experiment offering $15 in payment each day. Wanting to look at the dark side of human nature, candidates were needed to have no criminal history, no internal issues with out major medical conditions.
Each of the seventy applicants had been psychologically examined and the twenty-four most normal were picked to take part in the SPE. The 24 picked participants had been then split up into two teams randomly, with one half getting prisoners plus the other half being guards. The guards had been taken to the mock prison before the criminals arrived to help in the final stages from the prison’s building and to support select their particular military style outfits, this was to have the guards a sense of ownership within the prison environment. Alternatively the prisoners had been surprised with real police and traditional processing prior to being incarcerated into the prison.
Despite it being an artificially developed environment the guards and prisoners quickly altered all their behaviour in response to the situational variables from the experiment. Criminals were dehumanized and their style stripped apart, while the protects became a growing number of sadistic and degrading on the prisoners. Following the guards crushed an early attempted rebellion by the prisoners, 1 prisoner was launched for operating irrationally to a point that seemed pathological.
After this a number of the prisoners started to be super-conformist, subsequent rules to the letter. When other prisoners began to work crazy in an effort to passively avoid like the initially released hostage. The guards fell in to three classes with some performing sadistically and degrading for the prisoners, others going totally by the publication and some guards acting generously and doing small favours for the prisoners. non-e of protections ever intervened or inhibited the actions of additional guards even so no matter what kind of guard these were. The experiment was terminated early after just six days for the outsider, a current PhD graduate came in externally and found how unmanageable the test had become.
Moral issues that arose during the SPE were the harm completed the individuals. Guards had been allowed to inflict real discomfort and embarrassment on the prisoners over an extended period of time. The experiment was allowed to continue for longer than it should include because the participants and experts fell as well deeply within their roles.
There is also little or no regard for the participants’ confidentiality through the SPE.
- Category: Integrity
- Words: 461
- Pages: 2
- Project Type: Essay