In discussions of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo in 1970, one controversial issue has been whether or not the experiment should have ever been attempted. On the one hand, Dr. Zimbardo and his colleagues argued that the experiment gave them a deeper understanding of human suffering and a greater empathy for their fellow man (Ratnesar 2011). On the other hand, one of the former guards contended that the experiment made him more hostile and less sympathetic during his time as a guard and that the circumstances significantly altered his perception of what was appropriate behavior. Others even maintain that the prison experiment degraded the prisoners so greatly, empowered the guards to such a great extent, and even affected Dr. Zimbardo’s behavior and mannerisms so dramatically that it thoroughly altered their sense of…
Authority and Identity usually lead to compliances and conformity and these techniques usually occur in real life situation too. To test out if human being would lose their moral and social values when they lost their individuality, Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment in 1971 to see how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life (Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Experiment, 2008). This experiment was called The Stanford Prison Experiment and it was conducted at Stanford University. While the real life situation that was being mentioned, connected and relevant to Zimbardo’s experiment is the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. Abu Ghraib prison was a U.S. Army detention center for…
The lack of training and clear detailed information of what a soldier should and should not do to a captive, clearly was not communicated. Another issue that was proposed in the Stanford Prison Simulation was the disproportion of guards to prisoner’s, which was also a grand issue in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Few reinforcements with a mass of captives will cause an exhaustive effort to deal with the captives, therefore causing distress and frustration already to a scenario which already has a biased skew towards the captives. Training and in-depth detail of what is expected for the process of handling captives, could have changed the scenario…
The video, “Ghosts of Abu Gharib”, told the tale of inhumane treatment of Iraqi prisoners by United States military personnel in the early 2000’s. After the events that took place on September 11th, 2001 many individuals felt it was their need to join the army, fight for their country, and aid the war against terror. This was a very unique war because the rules of combat were not clearly stated because there was no straightforward law about treatment of individuals who were part of terror group. There was the Geneva law established in 1949 making torture illegal as an international law; however, it was not stated whether it applied to countries who were not part of making the law and did not enforce. One individual talked about his first day in combat asking about the…
One of the infamous experiment in the history of psychology was the Stanford Prison Experiment. Its creator, Dr. Zimbardo, main objective was to see what effects would occur when a psychological experiment into human nature was performed. As I began to perform some research of my own, I noticed that my thoughts on the matter were similar to many; that as a scientific research project, Mr. Zimbardo’s experiment it was a complete failure. However, his findings did provide us with something that was much more important that is still being talked about today; insight into human psychology and social behavior.…
This book talks about service members who tortured P.O.W’S of the war on terror. It also details how they take oaths to not torture prisoners of…
Phillip K. Zimbardo, who is a professor of psychology at Stanford University, directed the Stanford Prison Experiment, also known as the Zimbardo Experiment. The goal of the Zimbardo experiment was to research how willing human beings would imitate to the characters of correctional officers and inmates in an acting role that replicated life behind bars. But what really happens when you remove the freedoms of human beings and place them in subservient positions and place them in jail cell type settings? The answer is that the mind and physical well-being is drastically and forever changed for the worse, which Mr. Zimbardo’s tests proved.…
* Abu Ghraib Prison: The images from Abu Ghraib showed prisoners facing dogs, being stripped naked and wired up as if being subjected to electric…
An investigation into the treatment of detainees at the prison was issued when photo were discovered of guards abusing detainees in 2003. The human rights violations included: physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy, and murder. Many of the torture techniques used were developed at the Guantánamo detention center including prolonged isolation, a sleep deprivation technique where people were moved from cell to cell every few hours, short-shackling in painful positions; nudity; extreme use of heat and cold; the use of loud music and noise and preying on phobias. "Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet...positioning a naked detainee on a MRE box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture...having sex with female detainees...using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee...breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees...Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair...Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick" (qtd. in Behrens and Rosen 665-6). Eleven US soldiers were convicted of crimes relating to the Abu Ghraib scandal. A number of other service members were not charged but reprimanded. Shockingly enough, despite the level of…
Experiments have been done for many more years than humans can count on the two hands in which they possess. Two experiments, in particular, were written, “The Stanford Prison Experiment” by Philip G. Zimbardo and “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram. These experiments can be controversial for many different reasons, but neither of these experiments were completed under conditions of normality. The information collected in these experiments isn’t exactly based off of real life situations, it becomes difficult not to question the relevance of these experiments.…
From late 2003 to early 2004, during the Iraq War, military police personnel of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency[1] committed human rights violations against prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison. They physically and sexually abused, tortured,[2][3][4] raped,[2][3] sodomized,[4] and killed[5] prisoners.…
The Abu Ghraib prison was a prison in Iraq that was notorious for torturing the prisoners. Some of the violations include murder, sodomy, sexual abuse, and rape. Photographs of each torture mechanism were taken and shown to the government. Many of the American soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal were accused of abuse. The administration of George W. Bush tried to cover up the abuse cases as “isolated incidents”, therefore making it seem as if the torture was only happening to select inmates, and as a form of intense interrogation. It was later revealed that the torture was not conducted on a select few, but conducted throughout groups of the inmates. Some of the abusers in the prison believed that they were doing a good thing.…
This mistreatment left Mr. al Qahtani physically and psychologically broken. In November 2002 -- before he had even been subjected to the worst forms of torture -- an FBI agent reported that a prisoner later identified as Mr. al Qahtani was "talking to non-existent people, reporting hearing voices, [and] crouching in a corner of the cell covered…
Munro-Nelson, Janet. "Detainees at Guantanamo Bay Prison - A Reflection on the Facts." EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints. 07 Sept. 2009. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. .…
Years of controversy and debate have surrounded Guantanamo Bay, a United States military base that has been used as a detention facility for accused foreign terrorists since January 2002 (Kaplan 2005) following the September 11 terrorist attacks. The facility holds around 500 to 600 detainees at any given time, and most of these are, or are thought to be, members of known and dangerous terrorist organizations which are direct threats to the United States’ government and its citizens, such as al Qaeda and the Taliban.…