Stanford prison experiment (12) PDF

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Stanford Prison Experiment Name__Kaitlyn Grier__ Period ______ Central question of the experiment (answer this before viewing the documentary): 1. “Does the situation outside of you—the institution—come to control your behavior, or do the things inside of you—your attitude, your values, your morality—allow you to rise above a negative environment?” –Philip G. Zimbardo I usually try to overcome and rise above whatever is going on around me but sometimes depending on the situation and who it is with, my bad behavior comes out. With certain people if we are in a bad situation like arguing, I can raise my voice. I always try my hardest to stay calm and keep quiet but it is what it is sometimes.

Stanford Prison Experiment Introduction from http://www.prisonexp.org/ “What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions we posed in this dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in the summer of 1971 at Stanford University. “Our study of prison life began with an average group of healthy, intelligent, middle-class males. These boys were arbitrarily divided into two groups by a flip of the coin. Half were randomly assigned to be guards, the other to be prisoners. It is important to remember that at the beginning of our experiment there were no differences between boys assigned to be a prisoner and boys assigned to be a guard.”

Learn about the Stanford Prison Experiment: Watch the BBC Documentary: Start by watching the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760lwYmpXbc

OR Read about the experiment: http://www.prisonexp.org/ 2. Backgound: What had Milgrim’s study shown? That over 2/3 of Americans are willing to obey orders even if it involves hurting another person. 3. Consider the psychological consequences of stripping, delousing, and shaving the heads of prisoners or members of the military. What transformations take place when people go through an experience like this? They feel like they are losing themselves almost, like they are restarting. But I also feel like part of themselves they would feel humiliated, degraded, ashamed, and that they are being treated as if they are less than human beings because they can’t even have hair.

4. During the experiment, how did the prisoners and guards conform to their roles? The prisoners didn’t stand up for themselves and shortly had a distorted way of thinking. On the other hand, the guards became aggressive and intimidating and started to overuse their power. 5. How did even Zimbardo, the psychologist conducting the experiment, conform to his role as a prison superintendent?

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Stanford Prison Experiment He didn’t pay much attention to the harm, he paid attention to what the outcome was going to be. 6. How did the guards break the solidarity of the prisoners? The guards convinced the prisoners that one of the men was a troublemaker. The guards made the prisoners pick between giving up their blankets for the night or letting the prisoner sleep in solitary, the prisoners chose their blankets, leaving the other prisoner in solitary all night, alone. 7. How did the good guards react to what the bad guards were doing? The good guards refused to acknowledge the actions of the bad guards.

8. What are Zimbardo’s conclusions about human behavior, based on this experiment? A bad situation can change a good person and that people will easily conform to what they are told to do. Recent Events Connection 9. In 2003, U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners held at Abu Ghraib, 20 miles west of Baghdad. The prisoners were stripped, made to wear bags over their heads, and sexually humiliated while the guards laughed and took photographs. How is this abuse similar to or different from what took place in the Stanford Prison Experiment? Guards and prisoners were picked at random during the Stanford experiment. They acquired positions as policemen who used authoritarian methods such as psychological torture on prisoners. This was comparable to the humiliating of Iraqi soldiers by US forces at Abu Ghraib.

10. What other historical events could this experiment help us to understand? This experiment can help us understand any historical event where one listens to another so 9/11. The attackers were listening to somebody else, getting instructions on what to do from someone else. We can ask, how is it so easy for people to conform? Why do people conform to things they know are bad or can hurt others or themselves?

Prisoners' Coping Styles from http://www.prisonexp.org/ “Prisoners coped with their feelings of frustration and powerlessness in a variety of ways. At first, some prisoners rebelled or fought with the guards. Four prisoners reacted by breaking down emotionally as a way to escape the situation. One prisoner developed a psychosomatic rash over his entire body when he learned that his parole request had been turned down. Others tried to cope by being good prisoners, doing everything the guards wanted them to do. One of them was even nicknamed "Sarge," because he was so military-like in executing all commands. “By the end of the study, the prisoners were disintegrated, both as a group and as individuals. There was no longer any group unity; just a bunch of isolated individuals hanging on, much like Page 2 of 3

Stanford Prison Experiment prisoners of war or hospitalized mental patients. The guards had won total control of the prison, and they commanded the blind obedience of each prisoner.” 11. Are there people today that show similar styles of coping? Explain. People still do cope like this, those who fight in war and those who even fight their own wars in their head. I do not see it as much, but I know it happens. I know that some people can get so emotionally drained and frustrated that they get sick to their stomach and all they can do is puke, I’m one of those people. It’s so easy for the body to become overwhelmed in such a short period of time and anything can make someone overwhelmed. 12. What do you think of this question now? “Does the situation outside of you—the institution— come to control your behavior, or do the things inside of you—your attitude, your values, your morality—allow you to rise above a negative environment?” –Philip G. Zimbardo I think about this question differently now because if I was going through something like this I would probably break down to, just like most of the prisoners did. It’s hard to stay strong in situations like that, you have no idea what can happen next and you never know if it’s going to get better or worse. I truly feel bad for those that participated in this experiment.

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