Quiet Rage Documentary Analysis

Quiet Rage Response Quiet Rage is a documentary based on a prison experiment conducted by a Stanford University psychologist in 1971. It was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment has been severely criticized for going too far and is now taught in most psychology classes. I thought it was an interesting experiment, and one that was worth doing. It shows what a prison can do to people. The experiment displayed the different ways prisoners deal with prison. For example, some act out and fight it, others just accept it and do whatever the guards say, and yet still others try to make the best of it without fighting or totally accepting it. The experiment also shows how people can react differently …show more content…
However, if the experiment went the way it actually did, I think I would be the guard that would try to help the prisoners whenever possible. This is because there is a balance of discipline and freedom, and when that balance is broken bad things happen. If I were a prisoner I would follow the directions of the guards the best that I can from the beginning. I would keep following directions until the punishments would become unreasonably harsh/cruel. Then I would fight back and lead the prisoners to the warden’s/superintendent’s office where we would then ask for a change of how the prison was being carried out. This again is because of the balance, if one respects the guards they will respect you and leave you alone most of the time. However, if there was a sadist in the group then the balance is upset and it si time for an uprising. If the experiment was made to measure just the psychological effects of becoming a guard or a prisoner, I would say the experiment was relatively successful. However, we never really get to see for sure if things would’ve stayed this way in the long run, or if things would change throughout a guard’s or prisoner’s