Stanford Prison Experiment By Dr. Phil Zimbardo

Imagine participating in an experiment that uses memory and learning. Once you arrive you see an instrument that gives electric shocks to a man. This man is on the other side of the wall from you. As you move up in voltages the man begins to experience more pain. This man is in so much pain that he is even screaming. The experimenter persuades and pressures you to continue going on. Would you continue the experiment or would you refuse to go on? Stanley Milgram a social psychologist at Yale University asked this same question. Milgram performed a series of experiments that relied on authority and obedience.
Forty-five years later since Milgram presented this experiment society has change, but has people reaction to Milgram’s experiment changed? …show more content…
Phil Zimbardo is famous for his landmark study in 1971. This study was the Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo paid college students fifteen dollars a day to play the role of a prisoner or guard in a make-believe jail. This jail was ran out of the basement of the Stanford psychology department. These prisoners were given new identities. These identities were numbers that they were known as. The prisoners had to wear loose smocks, no underwear, and tight pantyhose caps. These tight fitting caps represent shaved heads. The guards dressed in khaki uniforms and they had mirrored sunglasses. These guards were also armed with night sticks. Dave Eshelman an eighteen year old at the time decided to become the aggressive guard that was also intimidating. The other guards followed his lead and they started harassing the prisoners. They would wake them up in the middle of the night and make them do counts as a type of punishment. Doug Korpi was one of these prisoners. By twenty-four hours the prisoners launched a full scale rebellion led my Korpi. These prisoners had ripped their numbers off and took off their stocking caps. They even went as far as barricading themselves into the cell and taunting the guards. The guards retaliated by making the prisoners do exercise constantly, deprived them of sleep, food, and bathroom privileges. They also took the prisoners clothes off, took the cots out of the cells, and took the bicycle chains that were on their feet and chained them all together naked. Zimbardo prohibited the use of physical violence so the guards instead used a series of psychological humiliation. Dave one of the guards wanted to humiliate these men. He wanted them to breakdown the solidarity they found in each other. They went even as far enough to shame a rebel prisoner into submission. This prisoner was crying uncontrollably. Two prisoners told Zimbardo they were suffering from severe depression and they had to be removed early from the experiment. In under a