Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

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In 1971, Phillip Zimbardo, a professor and psychologist at Stanford University, conducted one of the most controversial studies in the field of the field of psychology. With a group of students, he explored the conformity of the groups of the “guards” and “prisoners” via the social identities and roles. The students volunteered for the prison study and were randomly assigned the role of a guard or prisoner. For an anticipated two weeks, the students were to follow these roles and act accordingly. Due to the immediate results, the experiment was terminated within a week. In that time, some “prisoners” became physically unfit to continue and experienced mental instability, while most “guards” intensified their questionable actions. Only when an outside party examined the results, Zimbardo realized the effect of the experiment on the students. The infamous Stanford Experiment has come under scrutiny because…show more content…
Zimbardo permitted and continued to allow the dehumanizing of the prisoners by the guards. He acted as the superintendent, but did not halt the experiment until after an observant came to the facilities for an interview session. Examples of noted intimidation techniques the guards enforced included stripping, sleep deprivation, starving, and excessive exercise, as well as mental abuse like turning prisoners against each other or solitary confinement. The rights of the prisoners had been reduced to almost none. Guards withheld items like food, clothing, blankets, beds, and even bathroom privileges in order to maintain an intimidating and psychological upper hand on the prisoners. By Zimbardo having the role as the prison warden, he had an inability to recognize the harm being caused. As the expert or personnel in charge of the experiment, Zimbardo needed to be an outside entity to monitor the well-being of the “prisoners” and to clearly identify the wrongdoings in the
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