Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

One of the most influential studies in history that violates present-day ethical guidelines would have to be, The Stanford Prison Experiment. Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University conducted an experiment to examine the behaviors and roles of college students within a mock prison setting in 1971. Zimbardo’s purpose of his Stanford Prison Experiment was to observe the impact of situational influences on behavior. Studies had previously shown that individuals put within the prison system are dehumanized and have behavioral changes during the duration of the period stayed. Zimbardo’s hypothesis of the experiment was to put normal average individuals within the same setting and observe the behavioral changes throughout their stay. (Brady et al., …show more content…
As these individuals were not protected from harm nor insured that they were safe and taken care of, it allowed the guards to mistreat and torture these individuals. The torture and treatment of these that occurred was inhumane and the guards, ultimately took their power too far. The experiment was able to show how the behaviors of individuals change when put in a certain role and how it affects others they are surrounded by. The psychological state of these prisoners quickly changed as they entered the experiment with a healthy mentality, then experienced distress when secluded into their cells. Psychologically their emotions and behaviors declined and they were no longer the mentally healthy individuals they once were. Although these mock prisoners did not retaliate on the guards, this could have happened and then the safety of the guards would have been in danger also. Overall this experiment insured no safety or respect for the individuals involved, primarily the prisoners. The Stanford Prison Experiment was put in place to analyze the social power of groups for instance this experiment was guards vs. prisoners. Zimbardo created a controlled experiment with various variables in which he observed these college students and how they responded in a dominant system (Zimbardo, 2007). Could this experiment possibly have been approached differently and reached …show more content…
These males were then randomly divided into two different areas of the school, one half hung out with the jocks and cheerleaders, the other half were put to hang out with the drug dealers and partiers. Before this was completed the individuals who were still minors were required to obtain permission from their parents to complete such an experiment. The idea of this study was to observe and analyze the social behaviors of individuals in two different settings and see how peer influence effects the males. Peer influence of a child is known to have a huge impact on one’s choices and their want and need to feel excepted within their environments. After the first 5 days of being placed in these new social settings the individuals hanging out with the jocks started to like girls more and get into sports, while the boys who were around the drug dealers and partiers started to slowly not show up for class and were lying to their parents. These boys showed that social influence is crucial for development and overall changes their behavior and actions. Although this experiment the participants were not put in an environment where they were dehumanized and tortured, they proved that social settings influence behaviors in a negative manner. As this was an experiment after the 6th day, I stopped it as these boys needed to maintain their good grades and school