Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo
The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study of human responses to captivity and its behavioral effects on both authorities and inmates in prison. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of psychologists led by Philip Zimbardo. Undergraduate volunteers played the roles of both guards and prisoners living in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The experiment was intended to last two weeks but was cut short due to the rapid and alarming results it had received. The Participants/ Setting/ Procedures of the Study
The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in the basement of the Psychology Department of Stanford University. The basement was turned into a mock jail by the research team led by Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo hoped by setting up certain conditions within the jail it would further promote “depersonalization, disorientation, and individualization” (statemaster.com). Twenty-one people were selected by Zimbardo and his team because they felt that they were the most …show more content…
Critics argued that the results from the experiment could be generalized. A psychologist named Erich Fromm disputed that a person’s personality does in fact impact their behavior when imprisoned, which disputes the experimenters’ hypothesis that the actual environment influences the person behavior in the situation. Another criticism was that since the study was a field experiment there could be no scientific controls. Zimbardo was no a natural observer because he was directly involved in the experiment by playing the warden of the prison. This in turn made his conclusions highly subjective.
Conclusion
Even though the Stanford Prison Experiment has caused high controversy within the psychology field, it still shows how certain situations can affect one’s behavior.
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study of human responses to captivity and its behavioral effects on both authorities and inmates in prison. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of psychologists led by Philip Zimbardo. Undergraduate volunteers played the roles of both guards and prisoners living in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The experiment was intended to last two weeks but was cut short due to the rapid and alarming results it had received. The Participants/ Setting/ Procedures of the Study
The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in the basement of the Psychology Department of Stanford University. The basement was turned into a mock jail by the research team led by Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo hoped by setting up certain conditions within the jail it would further promote “depersonalization, disorientation, and individualization” (statemaster.com). Twenty-one people were selected by Zimbardo and his team because they felt that they were the most …show more content…
Critics argued that the results from the experiment could be generalized. A psychologist named Erich Fromm disputed that a person’s personality does in fact impact their behavior when imprisoned, which disputes the experimenters’ hypothesis that the actual environment influences the person behavior in the situation. Another criticism was that since the study was a field experiment there could be no scientific controls. Zimbardo was no a natural observer because he was directly involved in the experiment by playing the warden of the prison. This in turn made his conclusions highly subjective.
Conclusion
Even though the Stanford Prison Experiment has caused high controversy within the psychology field, it still shows how certain situations can affect one’s behavior.