Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

On August 14th 1971, Philip Zimbardo got 24 healthy male students together and started the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment was held in Jordan Hall, which is Stanford University’s psychological building. The study was about observing the students’ psychological behavior as they were playing a role as a prisoner or a prison guard. Out of the 24, there were 12 prisoners and 12 guards (6 of which were alternatives), and they were all payed $15 everyday to be apart of all this for 7-14 days. Zimbardo himself took part in this experiment as a superintendent. He designed this experiment to cause depersonalization in the students, making them lose their individuality. Zimbardo and his team had a hypothesis that each students’ personality …show more content…
The results of this experiment were situational rather than dispositional, meaning the situation the students were put in was the cause of their behavior, and not their actual personalities. The experiment also illustrated cognitive dissonance and used the power of authority. Every student’s behavior modified due to them being watched rather than the Hawthorne Effect, which is lurking. Even though they knew they were being observed, the students acted way different than they usually would. The guards felt like they needed to let everyone know that they had dominance even though it wasn’t necessary, and many of the guard’s brutal behavior had changed due to such horrible environments in the prison. The strength and affects this study had on people made a big impact on how prisons in the United States are ran …show more content…
The harsh environments the students had caused them to be put in a rage, and the guards abused and punished them, also putting them in a rage. This experiment was not ethical because it violated basically all of the Ethical Principals, which are beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect for people’s right and dignity. I would say the only benefit they had in this experiment was that they learned that abuse in prisons is horrible, and that everything else they did was unnecessary and extremely disrespectful, and the prisoners had no justice whatsoever. These principals are important to have so people don’t have to suffer like these students did in four short days. Although, psychologists might encounter a situation where they have to break some of these principals, such as preforming a procedure a patient does not want to have done but they need it. They benefit from it, although they have their justice taken away from them for a good reason. From this experiment, what I learned most was that prisons can be really harsh places—More harsh than what I thought at least. People can react to abuse in many forms, but it is never okay to abuse because you can develop long term affects from it. I am glad our country had a small toll from this experiment so that real prisoners don’t have to suffer as much as these students