The Milgram Experiment Essay

The general topic that the article is addressing: The rule of "guards" and "prisoners" in the context of an experimental simulation of a prison environment, and the research purpose is to help to identify and isolate the various processes which motivate aggressive/submissive behavior within a 'total institution' such as a prison. The author hypothesis might be called the dispositional hypothesis, that the state of the social institution of prison is due to the "nature" of the people…

Looking back now at the Stanford Prison Experiment, it is difficult to argue that this experiment was not unethical. I am a psychology major student, and this experiment always seems to pop up whenever ethics are being discussed. Many professors have made the remark that this experiment would never be allowed in today’s world. However, I think that while the experiment itself ended up being unethical, it was too difficult to have been able to predict how it would play out. At the same time, I…

Summary Zimbardo did an experiment to check if human beings could change (behavior wise) according to their surroundings. The “Prisoners” and the “Prison guards conformed well to their role plays. They acted out as if in real life. The null hypothesis stated that social life did not affect the behavior of a person. According to our findings the social place of the prison and the prison wardens change their behavior, thus we rejected the null hypothesis. In our conclusion the research supported…

acceptable and what is not in society. The social science experiment I conducted involved me violating a social norm and observing the reactions I would get from those around me, for doing something out of the norm, according to society’s standards. For this experiment I decided to stand backwards in an elevator, and not only stand backwards but close my eyes. The acceptable norm is standing in an elevator facing the door. I decided on this experiment and figured I could take full advantage…

The Garfinkel experiment As we go about our daily lives, we engage in social norms although we might not stop to think about what they are, the role they play and how it may affect us if it’s broken. Because of this I was given the task to break a social norm and analyze how society responds. This experiment is referred to as the Garfinkel experiment (taking the name of the sociologist who developed it,) whereby social norms (being unwritten rules that are accepted by society and govern the way…

Even though Zimbardo's prison experiment is 46 years old it, the findings were so punctual that it is still talked about today. Zimbardo lead the experiment in 1971 with Craig Haney and Curtis banks. The experiment was conducted in the basement of the psychology building, which they converted into a small prison block.. The Experiment was originally scheduled to be conducted for a 2 week period but due to the results Zimbardo was getting they cut the project at just 6 days. Somewhere of about 75…

In her book “Opening Skinner’s Box,” Lauren Slater invites us in this book to reflect on human nature by describing, commenting and inquiring about classic experiments in psychology. In chapter 7: “Rat Park” The Radical Addiction Experiment. She brings up an experiment that Bruce Alexander, a psychologist; made with rats. He decided to build a colorful park where he put from 16 to 20 rats of both genders with abundant food, balls and wheels to play. On the other hand, he isolated other ones into…

to mimic behaviour that is considered acceptable by society because they are afraid of being singled out and labelled an outsider. Others demonstrate a more deviant nature, yearning to be unique. Social scientists such as Philip Zimbardo, Stanley Milgram, and Solomon Asch examine an individual’s willingness to conform to individuals in power and or in groups. The film Cool Hand Luke follows a man who refuses to conform to accepted norms within a prison, as well as the prisoners who blindly…

the external environment, or “situation” as they can sometimes overwhelm humans, tempting them to do things that are beyond imagination (Dreifus, 2007). Zimbardo further proved his “situational variable” theory by organizing the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971, where he grouped young men who were deemed ordinary men into two groups, and they were instructed to play the roles of “prisoners” or guards” in a prison-like environment. As the days progressed, Zimbardo observed that the…

Zimbardo Assignment The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study of human replication to captivity, in cognation to the authentic circumstances of prison life. It was conducted in August 1971 by Phillip Zimbardo, a psychologist at Stanford University. Subjects were desultorily assigned, by the flip of a coin, to play the role as prisoner or the role as a prison sentinel. Those assigned to play the role as the sentinel were given night sticks, a whistle, and mirrored sunglasses to…