Stanford Prison Experiment

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When it comes to unethical treatment of a human being, which within this realm I feel also includes animals, that causes suffering by means of inhumane practices to test within a controlled group is immoral. For this week’s discussion pertaining to unethical treatment, I chose the Stanford Prison Experiment. In 1971, twenty-four college students participated in what they were told was an experiment about prison life, but as the testing only lasted for six days out of the two weeks expected, due to the mistreatment of the prisoners it took a much darker turn (Zimbardo, 2015). The unethical treatment began in under twenty-four hours starting with the prison guards because they thought that they were no longer being watched or video taped, thus for no reason was the mistreatment validated in…show more content…
The guards were given not set of parameters to follow, so as the prisoners detested the athorative figure took a stand to support their role; “rites and rituals that show employees the kind of behavior expected of them” (Darr, 2011, p. 56). The abusive behaviors were gaining more momentum, and those that were observing the experiment had no choice but to shut it down, questioning its moral standing. The prisoners began to breakdown, loosing their identity and became depressed; “participants playing the role of prisoners were not protected from psychological harm, experiencing incidents of humiliation and distress” (McLeod, 2008). Even though they knowingly were participants in the experiment, the unethical treatment was from the misinformation of what was to be expected, thus Dr. Zimbardo admitted later he did not even fully know what to expect from the experiment. Well than how would they get an honest psychological response for the project? They already took the time to weed out those that would not be suited for the project, but still had every prisoner have some degree of an emotional or mental breakdown. The inmates banded together in a rebellion to
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