Zimbardo Social Structure

Based on his study, what would you conclude about the impact of social structure on social interaction?
That even if we are normally one thing we are willing to behave/conform to what we think society is telling us we have to be. We are willing to assimilate within the group or surroundings (based on which side you’re viewing) due to what we perceive our position to be and assume the associated roles/norms that go with it. And sometimes just to maintain our own sanity. You saw mostly normal kids become “evil” and “vindictive” and enjoying the pain of others.
While we saw those being “abused” learning that they have no choice and its better not to fight and just find a way to “survive” by any means, usually breaking internally and detaching. …show more content…
It reminds me a lot of the book Lord of the Flies.

Is it valid to generalize from a small experiment like the one conducted by Zimbardo?
It is NEVER valid to draw any information/”facts” from a small or single time experiment and use if for another other reason than to justify trying the experiment and figuring out if you need to adjust some of the variables. While it may seem to support what we think is already “fact” that does not mean the experiment or our opions aren’t flawed. Misinformation is where “fact(s)” might be founded on such as, flawed or misintrupritated “information”.

Does this experiment explain the behavior of real life prison guards and prisoners?
This experiment doesn’t not explain the relationship though it might be demonstrating it, and while it might even be demonstrating it there is a lot of background/internal information that is left unnoticed/unmentioned. This is more a looking glass type “explanation”, we get to see actions but don’t understand their values or reason(ing) to the actions we