Ethics
Question One
There were many ethical violations that occurred in the Zimbardo Prison Study. The first violation was deception. Although Zimbardo got consent from the participant, he did not fully explain what the participant would be going through. They were told that they would be participating in a mock prison study. However, they were not told that they would be arrested at their homes and striped searched upon arrival at the prison site. It is very important that you inform participants with sufficient information about the study and get there agreement to participant. Also the prisoners were put in physical and psychological harm. For example, one of the prisoners had to be release after three days because he could no longer handle the conditions. After a couple of days of the study, the guards begin to be violent to the prisoners. It seems that the more the prisoner gave in, the more aggressive the guard became. They seem to feel that the guards had the mentality to do whatever they needed to do to keep the prisoners under control. The prisoners started to rebel and show a great deal of psychological stress. The guards were allowed to the leave the prison site, while the prisoners were required to stay 24/7. Even after the prisoners were harmed physically and psychological the study continued. It was not until Zimbardo’s graduate assistant and current wife, Christine Maslach, mentioned her worries about the events that were happening was the experiment terminated. I also felt that by Zimbardo because apart of the study was not a good idea. Zimbardo had a dual relationship with in the study, as the researcher and the prison warden. By becoming the prison warden, one can say that the guards felt that they needed the do whatever it took because there was a higher authority figure over them. This would cause the guards to do things that would humiliate the prisoners more. My personal reaction to watching the films was that this is crazy.
There were many ethical violations that occurred in the Zimbardo Prison Study. The first violation was deception. Although Zimbardo got consent from the participant, he did not fully explain what the participant would be going through. They were told that they would be participating in a mock prison study. However, they were not told that they would be arrested at their homes and striped searched upon arrival at the prison site. It is very important that you inform participants with sufficient information about the study and get there agreement to participant. Also the prisoners were put in physical and psychological harm. For example, one of the prisoners had to be release after three days because he could no longer handle the conditions. After a couple of days of the study, the guards begin to be violent to the prisoners. It seems that the more the prisoner gave in, the more aggressive the guard became. They seem to feel that the guards had the mentality to do whatever they needed to do to keep the prisoners under control. The prisoners started to rebel and show a great deal of psychological stress. The guards were allowed to the leave the prison site, while the prisoners were required to stay 24/7. Even after the prisoners were harmed physically and psychological the study continued. It was not until Zimbardo’s graduate assistant and current wife, Christine Maslach, mentioned her worries about the events that were happening was the experiment terminated. I also felt that by Zimbardo because apart of the study was not a good idea. Zimbardo had a dual relationship with in the study, as the researcher and the prison warden. By becoming the prison warden, one can say that the guards felt that they needed the do whatever it took because there was a higher authority figure over them. This would cause the guards to do things that would humiliate the prisoners more. My personal reaction to watching the films was that this is crazy.