A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment Conducted at Stanford University
Welcome to the Stanford Prison Experiment web site, which features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment, including parallels with the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. 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.
How we went about testing these questions and what we found may astound you. Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress. Please join me on a slide tour describing this experiment and uncovering what it tells us about the nature of human nature.
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Personal Comments:
Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo conducted this experiment to see how good people become evil. Upon my own review - it offers great insight into how situational ethics come into play when people are placed into various environments.
I encourage everyone to explore the website to gain an understanding as to how and why good people turn bad. For me it definately offered insights into many things that have been happening in the world around us and provided an interesting perspective/approach as to how to consider various events in the world.
spitty
sounds interesting. but i am having problems opening the page..
Adamo
yes this is quite an old experiment...some interesting findings into the human psyche indeed.
*~LiSa-LoO~*
I watched an interesting documentary on this on Google Video but when I went to look for it now the video was taken down.
exstasie
quote:
Originally posted by Adamo
yes this is quite an old experiment...some interesting findings into the human psyche indeed.
yeah, I first read about that a while ago (Don't remember how) but it was very interesting w/ how things developed!
geroin
quote:
Originally posted by rabbitjoker
lol rj, didn't i post the exact same thing in the documentary thread and no one said a word or replied back?
i even posted a video link to it.
edit: lisa and mk did
quote:
Originally posted by geroin Stanford Prison Experiment - Psychology of Imprisonment
The Stanford prison experiment was a psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life and the effects of imposed social roles on behavior. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. Undergraduate volunteers played the roles of guards and prisoners living in a mock prison built in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their assigned roles, stepping beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and leading to genuinely dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. One-third of guards were judged to have exhibited "genuine" sadistic tendencies, while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized and two had to be removed from the experiment early. Despite the now highly unsanitary and out of control conditions evident, only one of 50 observers, graduate interviewer Christina Maslach, objected to the experiment. Zimbardo then ended the experiment early.
Ethical concerns surrounding the famous experiment often draw comparisons to the Milgram experiment, which was conducted in 1963 at Yale University by Stanley Milgram, Zimbardo's former high school friend.
Originally posted by geroin
lol rj, didn't i post the exact same thing in the documentary thread
Sorry, I haven't opened the thread on documentaries. :)
geroin
quote:
Originally posted by rabbitjoker
Sorry, I haven't opened the thread on documentaries. :)
there was as awesome video about the actual experiment filmed in 1971
too bad it went down :(
here is only a little part of it
*~LiSa-LoO~*
^^^ I was lucky enough to watch the documentary before it was taken down. It was really interesting to watch, as I've discussed this experiment in a number of my classes.
geroin
quote:
Originally posted by *~LiSa-LoO~*
^^^ I was lucky enough to watch the documentary before it was taken down. It was really interesting to watch, as I've discussed this experiment in a number of my classes.
yeah me too, it was great with all the naration and explanation from zimbardo + the interviews at the end were great :P
cenik
I recommend that those who find the dynamics of this study interesting watch 'Das Experiment'.
