The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Introduction

Study of the psychological consequences of becoming a prisoner, jailbird or prison guard is as the Stanford prison experiment. Psychology professor Philip Zimbardo led the conduct test with a panel of researchers from August 14 to August 20 in 1971 at the Stanford University. It was supported by the US Office of Naval Research and was of concern equally to the US Navy and Marine Corps as an examination and thorough analysis into the cause of variance between military guards and prisoners (Zimbardo, n.d).

The Experiment

The researchers arranged a mock prison in the subterranean vault of Stanford University's psychology building, and then chose 24 undergraduate male students to take part in the roles of both prisoners and guards. The participants were chosen from a bigger faction of 70 volunteers after the evaluation that they had no criminal record, mental disorders or psychological evils that could have any sort of impact on them. The volunteers approved to play a part for a one to two week phase in replacement of $15 per day. The participants did not know or were on familiar terms with each other proceeding to the study. The 24 volunteers were allotted to play the role of the prisoner or guard (Zimbardo, n.d).

Structure and Design of the Experiment

Prisoners lingered in the prison during the whole day and night, but the guards usually alternated in three to eight hour shifts. Hence, there were on average three students looking out nine prisoners.

The intention was to comprehend the expansion of standards and the upshot of roles, labels, and societal prospects in a simulated prison environment. Zimbardo premeditated the experiment in order to provoke depersonalization, disorientation and individualization in the participants.

The outcomes of the experiment are to support situational ascription of behavior more willingly than dispositional provenance. In other terms, it seemed the situation caused the participants behavior, rather than anything intrinsic in their individual characters or traits.

Zimbardo played the role of prison superintendent and got so engaged in his character that he did not prevent the prisoners from the ill-treatment that was taking place by the guards. The most key outcome was that the simulation became so real, and the guards became so cruel and violent that the conduct test had to shut down after only six days rather than two weeks intended (Zimbardo, n.d).

Prisoners became unreceptive, showed flattened frame of mind and vague discernment of ...