Stanford prison experiment gone wrong
- Brian Lynn Bentley
- Mar 30, 2015
- 4 min read
Stanford prison experiment gone wrong.
Brian Lynn Bentley
Introductory Sociology
Colorado Technical University
The Stanford prison experiment may seem to be just a normal run of the mill experiment in the beginning. They didn’t need the dramatic arresting and booking process seemed to have little to nothing to do with the overall experiment or at the very least very little effect on the experiment. People do not even mention it after initial set up. The experiment seemed to devolve shortly after they got there and shortly after the booking not during or before. This experiment may have got the same results over a weekend. As even Zimbardo mentioned it did not take long for the Prisoners to act like prisoners and the Guards to act like some B-movie prison guard on an island ran by a hardnosed dictator. The guards began behaving badly at the same time the prisoners started behaving like prisoners, perhaps at first they thought they were role playing or acting and that was what was expected They felt that they were getting paid and had some control probably assuming the staff or the coordinators of the experiment would step in in case it went out of control. But from reading on similar experiments unless someone from outside steps in and stops it like Zimbardo's girlfriend. They did some processing that police departments even back then didn’t do. Blindfolds are prisoners of war and the CIA interrogations. So they went from a normal Jail procedure and incarceration to an incarceration you may see in some Authoritarian state they weren’t simulating or apparently even trying to simulate a real prison but more like a world war II prisoner of war camp. They didn’t even give guards minimum training they just said have at it do what you need to do but a simple warning of possible dangers but no instructions on how to handle situations.
After the first violent rebellion and you can’t have a rebellion without unity and a reason to follow a leader. So the guards thought Perhaps Psychological warfare may be better to break unity offering some prisoners special favors but not others.
Reason for the guards not acting the way their personality was outside of the experiment is they were given no rules or limits just a job. So they had no one to tell them to back off or stop they were left to their own devices. Then we have the unity of the guards they may of felt one guard was being attacked and came to his aid thinking they were helping the situation. But by making Stanford experiment situation worse as time went on. The guards had no structure or order for themselves. And the few people who could have given it didn’t seem to notice.
Zimbardo’s Work did indeed attribute to a deeper understanding of psychology group think bystander effect as well as group or social psychology. And even experiments similar to this or testing the same concept all seem to eventually get out of control fast. The situation or the place of evil does over rule in most cases good people but every now and again there is that one person who stands up and changes the world when they see the world is wrong.
Zimbardo said himself he should have stopped it as soon as it went out of control. He was more focused on the data even though he probably had enough and more than enough by the 2nd or third day. His girlfriend at the time Christina Malachi had opened his eyes for him. But thanks to these experiments gone wrong we now have better rules and code of ethics when doing experiments that may or may not be borderline ethical. Zimbardo May of shown some incompetence by not noticing his experiment was going out of control. No one stopped it no one checked on the health of the prisoners or guards. And the only person who stopped it was someone from the outside Christina Maslach she had a heart to heart with him when he opened his eyes.
Violated professional and scientific responsibility by not having more outside neutral parties check on his data and on the experiment to give him a moral or ethical compass.
Violated every single part of the respect for people’s rights dignity and diversity. With the half nakedness no rules humiliations and physical as well as what would be considered these days torture.
Social responsibility was violated on account the public arrests no one knew it was a fake arrests seems very few observers knew what was going on they even "Cleaned up" for family day some one knew they were borderline on the ethics if not completely crossed it yet no one stopped it when you have to cover something up something is wrong that should of rang bells and whistles.
The reason I didn’t think he violated integrity is he believed he was doing a valid experiment however when he knew he was wrong he admitted he was wrong he apologized for being wrong that took some indignity to admit you let one of your baby's turn into a monster.
The experiment was a success failure he proved a point he learned about the human psyche and thanks to this failure and out of control experiment we got some enforced ethical guidelines in every just about every country and every association that is involved with human experiments. Therefore the final comment is that even in the right hands psychology can be as dangerous as a gun in the wrong hands.
References
Stanford Prison Experiment. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2015, from http://www.prisonexp.org
ASA Code of Ethics. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://www.asanet.org/about/ethics.cfm
APA Ethics Code. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://web.csulb.edu/~psy301/apaethicsco.html
Movie
The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) [Motion picture]. (2015). Coup d'Etat Films, Sandbar Pictures, Abandon Pictures.
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