Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The Stanford Prison experiment - Coggle Diagram
The Stanford Prison experiment
Key procedures
volunteers were tested to ensure they were in top physical and mental health for experiment
volunteers were only male US students - findings can't apply to women or other countries - lack of population validity
randomly assigned role of guard or prisoner
prisoners arrested and taken to police station
weren't previously warned they would be arrested in homes - unethical
after arriving at prison, stripped, given smocks with their ID numbers
only to be referred to by ID number
Key findings
adapted to roles quickly
insults, petty orders, physicals punishments etc. used to taunt prisoners
rebellion on morning of second day - prisoners barricaded selves in to cells
guards took away their clothes and beds, sent worst to solitary and gave privileges to those least involved
prisoners were dependent on guards, guards viewed them with contempt, prisoners became more submissive, guards became more aggressive
prisoner #8612 - suffered emotional disturbance less than 36 hours in - had to be released as he began to act "crazy"
visit from parents - poor conditions corrected
prisoner# 819 - broke down while talking to priest, was told he could leave the experiment but didn't because he'd been branded as a "bad prisoner"
he eventually snapped out of it and left as if nothing was wrong
experiment ended after 6 days instead of 2 weeks because the violence had got out of hand
unethical because it was unpredictable - lack of fully informed consent
Purpose of the study
to discover if brutality of prison guards was dispositional or situational
dispositional - due to their sadistic personalities
situational - due to the prison environment
Conclusion
support situational explanation of behaviour
people will conform to social roles, especially if there is a strong stereotype
deindividuation - group mentality and lack of individuality created by environment and uniforms meant guards didn't feel responsible for their actions
learned helplessness - prisoners were submissive because they believed they deserved the treatment they received
both guards and prisoners expressed surprise that they could act the way they did
claimed they were acting - evidence to suggest otherwise
private conversations were often centred around prison
asked priest for a lawyer to get them out
altered way prisons functioned - juveniles held separately to adults
new ethical guidelines - experiments must be reviewed first
nothing in place to protect psychological wellbeing of participants