Key research - Haney

• What was the background?

  • Prison system in USA failing  
  • Recidivism rates up to 75%  
  • Failure put down to dispositional hypothesis  
  • State of social institutions due to nature of people who administrate it or populate it 

  Guards: 

  • Sadistic 
  • Uneducated 
  • Insensitive 

  Prisoners: 

  • Disregard for law + order 
  • Impulsive 
  • Aggressive  

   

  • Poor conditions in prison due to bad people and not bad conditions – draws attention away from politics and economics that make prisons what they are 
• What are the problems with studying prisons?

  • Hard to evaluate dispositional hypothesis by direct observation as effects on environment and personality can’t be separated from 
• What were the aims?

  • To study effect of context, situational explanation – must create new prison populated by normal individuals that separates dispositions of prisoners or guards 
  • To investigate effects of a prison environment on group of students to see if roles they were randomly assigned to play would significantly influence their behaviour 
  • Also investigates possible effects of imprisonment + possibilities for prison reform 
• What was the sample?

  • Volunteers from advert in Stanford Daily Newspaper  
  • 75 respondents given series of psychological tests + interviews  
  • 24 men judged to be most stable physically & mentally selected  
  • College students, largely middle class and strangers to each other 
  • 2 reserves not used & 1 dropped out 
  • 10 prisoners 11 guards 
  • Signed contract where – adequate diet, clothing, housing, medical care for 2 week duration 
  • Made clear they would have little privacy & basic civil rights suspended except physical abuse  
• What was the method?

  • Lab experiment 
  • Independent measures 
  • IVs – Prisoner or Guard 
  • DV – Behaviour of prisoners and guards using direct observation and self report including: Interviews after release, personality tests, mood inventories, questionnaires and daily guard reports 
• PROCEDURE - How was the prison set up?

  • In basement of Stanford Uni
  • Prisons consisted of 3 small cells with 3 cots with mattress and pillows, one for each prisoner
  • Unlit solitary confinement room
  • Guards had a separate wing with rooms including bedroom for Zimbardo – risk of bias in Zimbardo’s translations as he was trying to prove his own theory
• PROCEDURE - Prisoners

  • Signed up & arrested at own homes by Palo Alto police dept
  • Stripped, sprayed with dowsing fluid, made to stand naked in yard & placed in cell where had to be silent
  • Only referred to as numbers to dehumanise them
  • 3 bland meals, 3 supervised toilet breaks, 2 hours for reading or letter writing per day and 2 visiting periods
  • Lined up 3 x a day to be counted & tested on prison rules
  • Uniforms for anonymity - smocks (emasculates them)
  • ID on front & back
  • Light chain & lock on one ankle to convey oppression
  • Rubber sandals & nylon stocking cap
  • No personal belongings
• PROCEDURE - Guards:

  • Given power and went on power trip
  • Given reflective sunglasses – covers eyes for anonymity and dehumanises prisoners as no human connection
  • Kaki uniform – typical army colours
  • Guards had whistle and nightstick – not allowed to use nightstick
  • Guards met at pre experiment briefing and told to maintain reasonable degree of order within prison for effective functioning and decide amongst selves how to deal with situations
  • Guards believed study was about behaviour of prisoners and not themselves – mundane realism, ecological validity as no observer effect
• What were the main results?

  • Experiment terminated after 6 days. Mock prison had an impact on the feelings of prisoners and guards and the interpersonal processes between and within the group roles
  • Guards and prisoners showed more negative feelings towards each other and towards themselves
  • Prisoners expressed more intentions to hurt others
• RESULTS - Guards:

  • Prevented from using physical abuse but often expressed aggression verbally
  • Guards showed pathology of power through the enjoyment and misuse of their status or power. Shown through increasing sanctions e.g. rights became privileges
  • When experiment ended the guards seemed distressed and one said he was upset at the suffering of the prisoners
  • No guards failed to turn up for work (must have enjoyed it) and never complained or asked for extra pay for overtime
• RESULTS - Prisoners

  • 5 prisoners had to be released early because of extreme emotional depression e.g. crying, rage
  • One developed psychosomatic rash (reaction due to psychological factors) and appeared as early as the second day
  • Prisoners went from disbelief to rebellion – once failed some became sick as a way of demanding attention and some became excessively obedient
  • Negativity between obedient and sick became known as pathological prisoner syndrome due to loss of personal identity and emasculation
• RESULTS - Individual differences

  • Some guards were fair and relatively passive and others went far beyond their roles to engage in cruelty and harassment e.g. making prisoners clean toilets with bare hands or wake them up in the night for role call
  • Some prisoners coped by becoming ill or obedient
• What were the conclusions?

  • Being confined in a prison environment can lead to negative effects on feelings of both prisoners & guards and the interpersonal processes between them
  • Guards can develop pathology of power if given unchecked freedom and misuse their power
  • Prisoners can develop pathological prisoner syndrome
  • Ordinary individuals can play roles given to extremes
  • Punishment of being imprisoned in a prison does not fit the crime for most prisoners – it exceeds it and the situation is destructive for prisoners and guards and now an effective punishment