The general topic that the article is addressing: The rule of "guards" and "prisoners" in the context of
an experimental simulation of a prison environment, and the research purpose is to help to identify
and isolate the various processes which motivate aggressive/submissive behavior within a 'total
institution' such as a prison.
The author hypothesis might be called the dispositional hypothesis, that the state of the social
institution of prison is due to the "nature" of the people who administrate it, or the "nature" of the
people who populate it, or both.
The participants were 22 subjects, they were selected from an initial pool of 75 respondents who
answered a newspaper as asking for male volunteers to participate in …show more content…
On a random basis, half of the subjects have to assigned the role of ''guard'' and have were assigned
to the role of ''prisoner'', the data analysis is based upon 10 prisoners and 11 guards in …show more content…
The "prisoner" subjects remained in the mock-prison 24 hours per day. The
"guard" subjects work on three-man, eight-hour shift and going about their usual lives at other times.
They major the hypothesis directly through observation in existing prison setting because such
naturalistic observation necessarily confounds the acute effects of the environment.
The results of this study in general, guards and prisoners showed a marked tendency toward
increased negativity of affect, and their overall outlook became increasingly negative, prisoners
expressed intentions to do harm to others more frequently. For both prisoners and guards, self-
evaluations were more deprecating as the experience of the prison environment became
internalized.
In my opinion, the results of this study was positive results, on the other hand there were dramatic
situations, and the most dramatic evidence of the impact of this situation upon the participants was
seen in the gross reactions of 5 prisoners who had to be released because of extreme emotional
depression, but there was no racism, no physical beatings and no threats to
an experimental simulation of a prison environment, and the research purpose is to help to identify
and isolate the various processes which motivate aggressive/submissive behavior within a 'total
institution' such as a prison.
The author hypothesis might be called the dispositional hypothesis, that the state of the social
institution of prison is due to the "nature" of the people who administrate it, or the "nature" of the
people who populate it, or both.
The participants were 22 subjects, they were selected from an initial pool of 75 respondents who
answered a newspaper as asking for male volunteers to participate in …show more content…
On a random basis, half of the subjects have to assigned the role of ''guard'' and have were assigned
to the role of ''prisoner'', the data analysis is based upon 10 prisoners and 11 guards in …show more content…
The "prisoner" subjects remained in the mock-prison 24 hours per day. The
"guard" subjects work on three-man, eight-hour shift and going about their usual lives at other times.
They major the hypothesis directly through observation in existing prison setting because such
naturalistic observation necessarily confounds the acute effects of the environment.
The results of this study in general, guards and prisoners showed a marked tendency toward
increased negativity of affect, and their overall outlook became increasingly negative, prisoners
expressed intentions to do harm to others more frequently. For both prisoners and guards, self-
evaluations were more deprecating as the experience of the prison environment became
internalized.
In my opinion, the results of this study was positive results, on the other hand there were dramatic
situations, and the most dramatic evidence of the impact of this situation upon the participants was
seen in the gross reactions of 5 prisoners who had to be released because of extreme emotional
depression, but there was no racism, no physical beatings and no threats to