Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

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The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or a prison guard.The experiment was conducted at Stanford Univerity in August of 1971, by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. For the experiment twenty-four male students out of seventy-five were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participants pretrayed their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations. The guards were to enforce authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and readily harassed…show more content…
Participants were recruited and told they would participate in a two-week prison simulation. Out of 75 respondents, results 24 males appeared to be the most psychologically stable and healthy. All the participants were pre-dominantly middle-class citizens who were exclude with criminal background, psychological impairments or medical problems. Twelve of the twenty-four participants were assigned the role of prisoner, while the other twelve were assigned the role of guard. Zimbardo took on the role of the superintendent and an undergraduate research assistant took the role of the warden. The researchers held an orientation session for guards the day before the experiment, during which they instructed them not to physically harm the prisoners. The researchers provided the guards with wooden batons, uniforms and sunglasses. Prisoners wore uncomfortable smocks, stocking caps, and a chain around one ankle. The small mock prison cells were set up to hold three prisoners each. There was a small space for the prison yard, solitary confinement, and a bigger room across from the prisoners for the guards and warden. The prisoners were to stay in their cells all day and night until the end of the study. The guards worked in teams of three for eight-hour shifts. The guards did not have to stay
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