Iraqi Prisoner Abuse

Paper Summary:

This paper presents a pyschological analysis of the series of events that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison in order to extract the social issues surrounding the events. The paper looks at how the concepts of norm, conformity, reference groups, and potential groupthink, lead to the thesis that, the incidents did not take place because the soldiers were inherently evil, but because given the same set of events any individual would engage in the same actions.

From the Paper:

"The leadership aspects surrounding the events need to be taken into consideration. Since the actions whether directly or indirectly were acceptable to the authorities, since soldiers were given the mandate to act as interrogators ("Psychology of Iraqi Prisoner Abuse", 2004, para 20). The environment seemed to be a simulated set for abuse. Experiments conducted by Milgram shows how this type of leadership environment can lead to unnatural and uncharacteristic behaviors under the direction of other individuals. This leadership aspect is especially important in an army environment, and should have been more closely monitored. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• "How Psychology Can Help Explain the Iraqi Prisoner Abuse" (2004). American Psychological Association. Washington D.C.: Office of Public Communications. Retrieved March 17, 2007 from http://www.apa.org/topics/iraqiabuse.html
• Robbins, S. (2005). Organizational Behavior, 11th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
• Stannard, M. (2004). "Stanford Experiment Foretold Iraq Scandal: Inmates Got Abused in Psychology Study. Chronicle, May 8. Retrieved March 17, 2007 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/08/MNGN76IG761.DTL

More papers on Iraqi Prisoner Abuse:

• Essay # 83593 : "Iraqi Prisoner Abuse "
• Research Paper # 97621 : "Abu Ghraib Prison"
• Article Review # 135052 : "Abuse at Abu Ghraib"

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