While watching the Stanford Prison Experiment video, I came to find that the prisoners didn’t show much loyalty to each other after a while. At first, during the second day of the experiment, the prisoners joined together with rebellion by putting the rails of their beds against the door. Prisoner 819 that started the rebellion was put in the solitary confinement room they called “the hole”, while the remaining prisoners were punished for what that prisoner did. After a while they stopped rebelling with each other because the guards punishments became more intense. It became every prisoner for himself.
To the prisoners, the guards had all the power and they felt as if they were supposed to submit to the guards will. On the other hand, the guards, also being good people, displayed rather heinous behavior. Being in a position of power, almost instantly corrupted the college students who were playing the role of the guards. The experiment was projected to last two weeks, but Zimbardo had to end the experiment after only six days due to such dramatic results. After the experiment Zimbardo thoroughly analyzed what had happened.
The prisoners and guards are given and taught the roles they are supposed to play. A few days in to the experiment, the prisoners hear that they cannot leave the jail. Already consumed by their roles, they do fail to realize that it is all just an experiment. They had become their roles because other alternatives were lost. They had become true prisoners.
Although it was acting, the experience still felt real. When the young men were interviewed, they talked about how the experiment changed their behavior and attitudes. Zimbardo felt that there were no long-term effects on the students However, there were a few. One of the prisoners replied that he has a problem with people with mirror glasses because, the glasses were apart of the experiment. The experiment ended when a graduate student who became Zimbardo’s wife came to visualize the experiment.
Surprisingly, the participants truly embodied their roles. Throughout the experiment, the prison guards enforced their authoritarian power and tormented the prisoners both mentally and physically. Despite being the conductor of the experiment, Zimbardo also played a role as the superintendent of the prison. The Stanford Prison Experiment was significant due to its controversial nature and continued discussion in the classroom. The experiment itself was a form of field research.
It deteriorated into something that caused even the moderator himself to begin to internalize and identify with his new role of warden. All participants behaved in a manner they thought was required of them and obviously ignored or declined to use their own judgment in any given situation. All reactions were dictated by the situational needs not individual value systems or moral dilemma. The micro prison society that they created dictated their actions despite being viewed as inappropriate, evil or excessive. As their prison society evolved, their roles adjusted accordingly thus giving credence to Dr. Zimbardo’s assertion that “prison abuse is situational and structurally
Sykes argues that institutional aggression is a result of the environment, and that it is occurs within prison institutions because they experience deprivation on a daily basis. These include deprivation of liberty, where the prisoners are deprived of their freedom, deprivation of autonomy, where the prisoners are deprived of their independence by constantly being controlled by officers and loss of security, where many of the prisoners feel insecure of themselves. This is then supported by Sykes who found that the potential threat to personal security increased the anxiety levels in inmates, even if the majority of prisoners were not a threat to them. However, inmates may cope with these struggles in a number of ways, including some prisoners isolating themselves in their cells, whereas others choose to rebel by being violent towards staff. A study supporting the deprivation model was carried out by McCorkle et al who found that overcrowding, lack of privacy and lack of meaningful activities leads to peer violence which shows that the environment and place, could be a significant factor influencing aggression within prisoners.
Battalion, was assigned to staff the prison and was charged with the upkeep of the facility and its inmates. Within the unit, a select few soldiers displayed extremely unethical and disgraceful actions toward Arab inmates, without any repercussions from the superior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum (Hersh, 12). Some of the horrific incidents performed on the prisoners included; breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees, threatening male detainees with rape, as well having the prisoners perform homosexual acts on one another and photographing the incidences (Hersh, 13). Homosexual acts are frowned upon in many cultures, but is completely against Islamic law. Having those Arab detainees perform those gruesome and degrading actions is entirely unethical.
64) When these results were seen, one of Milgram's colleagues dismissed these results as "having no relevance to 'ordinary' people" because Yale undergraduates are "a highly aggressive, competitive bunch who step on each other's necks on the slightest provocation." (Milgram, 1973, pg. 64) When he conducted the study the same way using "ordinary" people, "The experimental outcome was the same as we had observed among the students." (Milgram, 1973, pg. 64) While in Zimbardo's study, twenty-two students from Stanford were used in his prison experiment.
There were reports from inmates stating that they were scalded with hot water, beaten unconscious during cell extractions, and isolated for years. What the prison in California did not know is that they violated those abused inmates according to their Eight Amendment Right, although it is sometimes necessary for police to use force the behavior displayed is cruel and unusual and no one should be abuse because of the color of their