STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE
In 1971 innocent college students signed up for an experience they will never forget. A psychologist was interested in the physical and mental limits that individuals would undergo to assume a behavioral role. As the experiment prolonged, the innocent college students took the role of the prison guards and dehumanized this “prison mates.” They stripped the inmate naked, belittled them with force and insults, and threaten to beat them. This treatment after only the third day caused one “inmate” to go crazy and went into a crazed rage, as he was being held captive.
The background to the Stanford prison experiment is significant as it gives personal accounts of the conditions experienced by the participants. It is noted that “guards” were able to make up the own rules in attempt to get the “inmates” to follow their commands. It also noted that another psychological medical experimenter, Alexander Haslam, tried to replicate and verify the results of the Stanford experiment but was disproved and is now a critic stating there are better ways to discover information in the medical community than through brutality and force.
There are many flaws to this experiment due to the fact that Zimbardo himself stated that this was a controlled experiment with participants unquestionably accepting the roles they were given as a prison guard and inmate but it was noted in an interview that the participants knew they were taking on a role and questioned various parts of the experiments. There was a strict highlight among the ethical principles that were violated such as the guards violently and forcefully degrading the men in the study and stripping them of humanity.
Sources:
Mcleod, Saul. “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” Stanford Prison Experiment
Simply Psychology. AccessedApril 6, 2020. https://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html
Perry, G. (2018). The evil inside us all. New Scientist, 240(3199), 39–41.
https://doiorg.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/10.1016/S0262-4079(18)31849-9
Resnick, Brian. “Philip Zimbardo Defends the Stanford Prison Experiment, His
Most Famous Work.” Vox. Vox, June 28, 2018. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/28/17509470/stanford-prison-experiment-zimbardo-interview.