Stanford Prison Experiment Analysis

The video contained the results and analysations of a social experiment called the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment watched over 24 young, healthy, college men. They then flipped a coin to see which 12 would act as guards and which 12 would act as prisoners inside of a prison simulation. They acted out this simulation for 6 days before it was cut short due to the amount of cruelty that the men were experiencing. Originally it was to last 2 weeks but after a few had to drop out due to mental breaks they ended it. The men within this experiment acted rough and unlike anyone thought. The mock guards had given the prisoners harsh treatments and the prisoners revolted which caused both parties to be unhappy and put into situations …show more content…
The video shows a great example on how when people are given certain titles, even when they mean very little, they can still let the power of it go to their head. Many of the choices they had made were unethical but they had still gone through with them. Was it the fact that they had authority? Or maybe it was just the ideal of being a guard in prison that sent them into these actions. Ethics are the principals and morals that determine a person's actions and thoughts. Though all the men were equals outside of the experiment, once they were put into a situation where half had authority over the other, the level playing field was forgotten. This is an example of the Social-Conflict Paradigm. The Social-Conflict Paradigm is a large scale view on how when a society views and area of inequality and generates conflict and social change. Some of the key factors are displayed within this experiment. There is a dominant group versus a disadvantaged group, the guards versus the prisoners. While there is no factor such as race, sex, or gender involved there is a community made between this group that is structured unfairly. They are set up to have 12 managing the others and keeping them in …show more content…
There are the stubborn, the rule followers, the unstable one who cannot handle the prison, and so on. Even when they brought in a priest from the local prison he had said that he had observed them as acting similarly to those who had actually be incarcerated, and it was only a simulation. The realness may have been what was causing the boys to act so unfairly towards each other. They were fully immersing themselves into this and mentally became their role. The prisoners had even admitted to not feeling like themselves and more towards their prison number. This was possibly too much for them to handle. Prison is a rough place, even in just a simulation. They had been locking themselves in a mental prison. They had been told before they could leave whenever they felt if they could not handle the conditions they were put in but instead they had convinced themselves they were real prisoners in a