Zimbardo 'Stanford Prison Study'
- Created by: EmilyRoseCotterell
- Created on: 18-12-17 10:47
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- Zimbardo 'Stanford Prison Study'
- Procedure
- Mock prison set up in basement of psychology department at Stanford Uni, California
- Ppts = 24 male, normal, healthy, predominately white with middle class college students
- Psychological-ly + physically screened before
- Advertised, 75 people responded
- Prisoners
- unexpectedly arrested at home
- put through delousing procedure - given uniform + ID number
- Uniform - loose fitting smocks, no underwear, lock + chain on ankle, stocking caps to cover hair
- allowed certain rights - 3 meals + 3 supervised toilety trips a day, 2 visits a week
- Humiliated
- Searched, stripped, deloused (remove germs)
- Guards
- given uniforms, clubs, whistles, relfective sunglasses (prevent eye contact)
- expected to last for 2 weeks
- Debriefings
- Met with psychologists
- Ppts would get £15 per day
- Funded by US Navy
- Biased?
- investigating causes of conflict between guards and prisoners in naval prisons
- Findings
- Prisoners
- 5 had to released early due to extreme reactions - emotional breakdowns, crying, rage, etc
- Didn't take gaurds seriously at the start
- Began to rebel - this led to further punishment
- Suffered from 'Psychological power syndrome' - loss of personal identity, dependancy, control by guards
- Loss of control + identity
- Guards
- First they became abusive towards prisoners
- Woke prisoners in the night + forced them to clean toilets with bare hands - degrading activities
- Became sadistic
- showed power through physical punishment
- Manipulated prison to appear more reasonable to visitors - clean, food, music
- First they became abusive towards prisoners
- Ended after 6 days
- Graduate told Zimabrdo how unfair it was
- No long term nergative impacts
- Prisoners
- Evaluation
- Unethical
- Didn't explain what the prisoners would face
- Physical + mental harm
- Lied/decieved parents
- Made it difficult for ppts to leave
- BUT Zimbardo argues it is ethical because
- Only deceptin was the arrests
- Signed consetnt
- group + indivudal deberiefings
- Listen to advice from other psychologists
- Info gained was worth it
- stopped the study early
- Created ethical guidelines
- Invalid
- Lacks ecologically validity
- Results cannot be generlaised as ppts were acting + behavuour may not be influenced by dame factors which affect bahvour in real life
- Artificial
- Experiment in uni
- Prisoners hadn't commited crimes
- Guards had no traing
- Dressed in outifts
- BUT
- He put real people in a 'prison' + locked them up
- Lacks ecologically validity
- Unrealiable
- Volunteered sampling
- Self selected
- Unethical
- Conclusion
- Rejects hypothesis of 'inherent personality traits are primarily responsible for abusive behavior that takes place prison environments'
- Behaviour of 'normal' students was influenced by their role
- The prison environment created the guards brutal behaviour
- Guards weren't sadistic before
- People conform to the social roles that they're expected to play (especially stereotypes)
- The roles shape their attitudes + behaviour
- The 'Pathology of power'
- The prison environment made the ppts bad
- Disregards 'Bad people do bad things' which suggests prisons aren't bad due to their environment but due to individuals
- If 'ordinary' people were placed in a simulated prison environment and some of them were designed guards and some prisoners, how would the behave to their new social roles?
- Zimbardo, Haney, Banks, Prescott
- Procedure
- Became enthusiastic
- Some offered more hours for no pay
- Guards
- First they became abusive towards prisoners
- Woke prisoners in the night + forced them to clean toilets with bare hands - degrading activities
- Became sadistic
- showed power through physical punishment
- Manipulated prison to appear more reasonable to visitors - clean, food, music
- First they became abusive towards prisoners
- Behaved sadistically off camera too
- Ppts often forgot it was a psychological study + they were just acting
- Still conformed to roles when not being watched
- Findings
- Prisoners
- 5 had to released early due to extreme reactions - emotional breakdowns, crying, rage, etc
- Didn't take gaurds seriously at the start
- Began to rebel - this led to further punishment
- Suffered from 'Psychological power syndrome' - loss of personal identity, dependancy, control by guards
- Loss of control + identity
- Ended after 6 days
- Graduate told Zimabrdo how unfair it was
- No long term nergative impacts
- Prisoners
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