stanford prison exp

• when was it

  1973
• who ran it

  zimbardo
• what was his aim

  to investigate the situational rather than dispositional causes of negative behavior

  
  

  wanted to see if the brutality reported among american guards at the time was due to sadistic personalities (deposition) or due to the environment (situation)
• where was the prison

  in a converted basement in stanford university (in the psychology department)
• who were the participants


  24 young male students

  -paid $15 a day to take part
• set up/procedures to the experiment


  -participants were screened for psychological normality before being let in

  -participants were randomly assigned a role of guard or prisoner based on a coin flip, even though the guards were told they were specifically chosen for the role

  -prisoner arrested at their home

  -prisoners wore a smock uniform and a nylon cap to simulate baldness + had a chained ankle

  - prisoners called by number only

  - guards wore a khaki uniform with whistles handcuffs and dark glasses

  
  

  -no physical violence was allowed
• findings


  -guards became abusive very quickly and prisoners showed signs of stress and anxiety

  -interactions between g + p became hostile and dehumanising

  -some guards behaved abusively and threateningly whilst the prisoners became passive and showed signs of depression

  
  

  -5 prisoners released early due to crying and anxiety

  -had to be stopped after 6 days not the full 14

  
  

  -every participant and researcher began to loose sight of reality including zimbardo
• conclusions


  social roles have an extraordinary power over individuals

  
  

  stable individuals can abuse power and behave in violent and antisocial ways if placed in a social role where it is acceptable to do so

  
  

  conforming to social roles is easy especially if the roles are well sterotyped

  
  

  findings support the situational factors rather than dispositional ones
• evaluation- external validity


  -lack of population validity, US male students are not representative of real guards or their educational background

  -they were screened for mental health issues before going in which real guards and prisoners are not all mentally 'norm'

  
  

  -lacks realism, it is a simulated prison and not a real one: simulated smocks and ankle chains and baldness= more like a prisoner of war camp than a prison

  
  

  'it is a prison run by psychologists not the state
• evaluation- replicability - external validity


  -never been replicated due to how unethical it was

  -however in 2002 the bbc televised 4 1-hour long documentaries which showed how relationships developed between guards and prisoners, the findings were very different: prisoners took over the prison and subjected the guards to harassment
• evaluation- internal validity


  -critics say that zimbardo did not observe but participated in the study+ the events eg, recordings of the briefing of the guards shows zimbardo encouraging the guards to be 'active and involved' and be a 'tough guard' = suggests the guards actions were not due to conformity to social roles but due to them behaving to please the researchers

  
  

  -suffered from demand characteristics: guards thought they should prove that prisons are a hostile environment so acted hostile, the prisoners thought that because it was a fake prison they were protected from harm and could be more rebellious

  = observed effect is not completely genuine
• ethical issues


  - privacy and confidentiality

  - did not have fully informed consent

  - not always protected from harm

  -zimbardo put research interests before welfare of participants