The Ethical Dilemmas of Dr. Zimbardo`s Stanford Prison Experiment
Alexander Claerbaut
Michigan Technological University
Abstract
This paper is about the ethical errors that can be observed in the Stanford Prison Experiment ran by Philip Zimbardo, PhD. This experiment involved Zimbardo randomly assigning college aged volunteers to either play a guard or a prisoner role in a prison simulation. His goal was to discover how human behavior was affected by a bad setting. I will discuss multiple errors Zimbardo made in both his role in the experiment and his protection of his participants rights. In this paper the American Psychological Association will be abbreviated APA and the National Health and Medical Research Center will be …show more content…
Because he was so concerned about his role-play as superintendent, Zimbardo mishandled the first situation in which a participant approached him withdrawing from the experiment. Participants always have the right to back out if they wish and it is the experimenter`s responsibility to make sure all of the participants are aware of that right. When one of the prisoners approached Zimbardo about quitting his role in the experiment Zimbardo urged him to stay under conditions which, Zimbardo thought, would be less burdensome and, albeit unintentionally, led the participant to believe he could not leave the experiment (TheAnswerto1984is, 2011). This was major ethical fault which could have been prevented is Zimbardo had been more focused on his role as …show more content…
Zimbardo showed very minimal concern about the welfare of his participants. He allowed the prisoners to be both socially and emotionally abused. There was no attempt by Zimbardo to minimalize the ways the guards mistreated the participants. Prisoners were put under extreme emotional distress. In my opinion, the most nauseating display of disrespect was when Zimbardo allowed a prisoner to go on a food strike. For two days Zimbardo allowed one of the participants to go without eating. This was also a significant health risk which psychologists are required to minimalize under the Belmont
Alexander Claerbaut
Michigan Technological University
Abstract
This paper is about the ethical errors that can be observed in the Stanford Prison Experiment ran by Philip Zimbardo, PhD. This experiment involved Zimbardo randomly assigning college aged volunteers to either play a guard or a prisoner role in a prison simulation. His goal was to discover how human behavior was affected by a bad setting. I will discuss multiple errors Zimbardo made in both his role in the experiment and his protection of his participants rights. In this paper the American Psychological Association will be abbreviated APA and the National Health and Medical Research Center will be …show more content…
Because he was so concerned about his role-play as superintendent, Zimbardo mishandled the first situation in which a participant approached him withdrawing from the experiment. Participants always have the right to back out if they wish and it is the experimenter`s responsibility to make sure all of the participants are aware of that right. When one of the prisoners approached Zimbardo about quitting his role in the experiment Zimbardo urged him to stay under conditions which, Zimbardo thought, would be less burdensome and, albeit unintentionally, led the participant to believe he could not leave the experiment (TheAnswerto1984is, 2011). This was major ethical fault which could have been prevented is Zimbardo had been more focused on his role as …show more content…
Zimbardo showed very minimal concern about the welfare of his participants. He allowed the prisoners to be both socially and emotionally abused. There was no attempt by Zimbardo to minimalize the ways the guards mistreated the participants. Prisoners were put under extreme emotional distress. In my opinion, the most nauseating display of disrespect was when Zimbardo allowed a prisoner to go on a food strike. For two days Zimbardo allowed one of the participants to go without eating. This was also a significant health risk which psychologists are required to minimalize under the Belmont