Zimbardo's "Stanford Prison Experiment"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Philip Zimbardo's "Stanford Prison Experiment" explored issues of social roles and obedience and how the experiment utilized about 20 college-aged men who were divided
into groups of guards and prisoners in a prison-like environment. It looks at how the experiment eventually went out of control and was cancelled and contends that it was research into the nature of prejudice, with ethical flaws which could have been solved in various ways.

From the Paper:

"In Zimbardo's famous experiment, the researcher divided a population into guards and prisoners and extreme prejudice developed between the groups, leading to violence and the cancellation of the experiment. The experiment became extreme, went out of control, and yielded results that could be considered unethical, but it was set up as an ethical experiment. The participants were assured that there would be no physical harm because the guards were told that this would be forbidden. Even though taking prisoners' blankets, using the fire extinguishers, and making them do physically punishing exercises constituted only minor physical harm, many of the prisoners fell apart psychologically. And one guard stated that "I lashed out with my stick and hit him in the chin (although not very hard, and when I freed myself I became angry. Acting authoritatively can be fun" (Zimbardo, 2008)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Zimbardo (2008) Stanford Prison Experiment. http://www.prisonexp.org/

More papers on Zimbardo's "Stanford Prison Experiment":

• Analytical Essay # 72708 : "The Stanford Prison Experiment"
• Analytical Essay # 9078 : "The Perils of Obedience" and the "Stanford Prison Experiment"
• Analytical Essay # 146979 : "The Stanford Experiment by Zimbardo"

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