This essay will focus on “A Study of Prison Guards in a Stimulated Prison”, an experiment conducted in 1973 at Stanford University, by one of the most famous Psychologists to date, Philip Zimbardo. Interestingly, the Office of Naval Research sponsored the study as part of an ongoing programme tailored to generate a better understanding of the first principles of psychological processes underlying human aggression (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973). A famous experiment widely propagated in the education of social psychology, demonstrating the importance of the power of social situations on people's behaviour regarding conformity, obedience and aggression.
Zimbardo, vastly influenced by Milgram and his studies of obedience, which significantly …show more content…
Diener refined Zimbardo's model by following variants on his deindividuation concepts examining internal changes of a person in a state of deindividuation experience. Diener (1979) reported: “ lack of self-awareness and lack of conscious planning, group entity and disinhibited behaviour occur together within individuals”. Rogers and Prentice (1981) also conducted a study using manipulations like those of Zimbardo's, participants were not addressed by their name, instructed that all responsibility was that of the experimenter. Instructed to inflict shocks on innocent people that they would not meet and the experimenter would not know length or severity of the shocks. The results supported the findings of obedience studies previous, anonymity leads to diffusion of responsibility. More recently a study on how deindividuation effects group polarisation claimed to provide reliable research that the many predecessors did not, the subjects responded to questions and gave an opinion on a dilemma, their partners had to say how valid they thought their points were. Observing that those identified and polarised within a group are significantly more likely to act out of character (Lee, 2007). Mullen (1996) took his study out of …show more content…
Previous to the SPE incarceration saw a shocking record of failure, a system that statistics showed created more crime as appose to preventing it and rehabilitating criminals. There has been a focus on the length of the study and how quickly psychological health of those involved deteriorated, evoking question to what effect incarceration would have on minor offenders. Criminals would leave the free world to face extreme social isolation and limited environmental simulation in a habitat of maximum control. Fostering anonymity by withdrawing freedom of expression and the exercise of choice was common in the prison system. Provoking an examination of the effect this has on inmates psychological state, triggering the process of rehabilitating within communities. Weakening focuses on punishment and gaining control with locks and bolts rather, aiding individuals to be able to adapt to outside environments (Wortley, 2002). Together with initiating the juvenile justice system, age-segregated jails and trails in a juvenile court (Haney, & Zimbardo,
Zimbardo, vastly influenced by Milgram and his studies of obedience, which significantly …show more content…
Diener refined Zimbardo's model by following variants on his deindividuation concepts examining internal changes of a person in a state of deindividuation experience. Diener (1979) reported: “ lack of self-awareness and lack of conscious planning, group entity and disinhibited behaviour occur together within individuals”. Rogers and Prentice (1981) also conducted a study using manipulations like those of Zimbardo's, participants were not addressed by their name, instructed that all responsibility was that of the experimenter. Instructed to inflict shocks on innocent people that they would not meet and the experimenter would not know length or severity of the shocks. The results supported the findings of obedience studies previous, anonymity leads to diffusion of responsibility. More recently a study on how deindividuation effects group polarisation claimed to provide reliable research that the many predecessors did not, the subjects responded to questions and gave an opinion on a dilemma, their partners had to say how valid they thought their points were. Observing that those identified and polarised within a group are significantly more likely to act out of character (Lee, 2007). Mullen (1996) took his study out of …show more content…
Previous to the SPE incarceration saw a shocking record of failure, a system that statistics showed created more crime as appose to preventing it and rehabilitating criminals. There has been a focus on the length of the study and how quickly psychological health of those involved deteriorated, evoking question to what effect incarceration would have on minor offenders. Criminals would leave the free world to face extreme social isolation and limited environmental simulation in a habitat of maximum control. Fostering anonymity by withdrawing freedom of expression and the exercise of choice was common in the prison system. Provoking an examination of the effect this has on inmates psychological state, triggering the process of rehabilitating within communities. Weakening focuses on punishment and gaining control with locks and bolts rather, aiding individuals to be able to adapt to outside environments (Wortley, 2002). Together with initiating the juvenile justice system, age-segregated jails and trails in a juvenile court (Haney, & Zimbardo,