By a flip of a coin, half were arbitrarily designated as prisoners and the others as guards. The guards were allowed to make up their own rules for maintaining law, order, and respect. The students designated as “prisoners” were unexpectedly picked up at their homes by a city police officer in a squad car, searched, handcuffed, fingerprinted, booked at the station house, and taken blindfolded to the mock jail. The results of this experiment startled prisoners, guards, and researchers alike. After only six days (rather than the intended two weeks) Zimbardo and his colleagues, aware of the ethical implications of using human subjects, had to terminate the simulation because such frightening behaviour had taken place.
Burlington County Prison In 1811 Burlington County had built their first prison. The cost of building the prison was over $24,000, they went over the budget 2.5 times. It was a stone structure made to house only 40 inmates. The huge door in the front dates back to 1811, so do the locks. Nothing has been changed on the building since it was closed in 1965.
In 1971, a psychologist named Phillip Zimbardo had the idea to hold an experiment that would study the impact of becoming a prisoner or a guard at a prison. Zimbardo’s main focus was to expand on Milgram’s study of situational behaviors. A newspaper ad was put out asking for volunteers to be in a psychological study. Those that responded were picked up at their homes as if they were being arrested. They were completely convinced that they were actually being arrested.
The four different blocks were A, B, C, and D. With Alcatraz only being one and a half miles from shore, inmates felt it would be an easy escape. The main door to get anywhere in Alcatraz was four inches think, seven feet tall, and five feet wide. The first set of inmates on Alcatraz was a total of 32 prisoners that were abandoned by the military for the Bureau of Prisons. Shortly after they were settled, the first set of prisoners came in train cars on August 22, 1934. For the 29 years Alcatraz was in business, it became known as the home to America’s most eminent kidnappers, rapists, murderers, and kingpins (Wellman 51).
The Zimbardo Prison Study A person actually going insane from participating in a mock prison study! Wow, who would have thought that. In the beginning I think Zimbardo accomplished exactly what he sat out to do; He created a functional prison setting. These boys really had no idea what they had gotten themselves into. In an effort to make this experiment as real as possible, the college students were picked up by a police officer, read their rights and formally arrested, while neighbors watched in disbelief.
The film, Quiet Rage: The Standard Prison Experiment, shows a real life example of how a person’s thoughts, attitudes, and behavior can be easily altered according to environmental changes. When exposed to changes in social situations, our mindsets and behaviors are easily influenced. In this experiment, male college students were randomly assigned roles as either a prison guard or a prisoner. Although the participants were fully aware that these were only roles and not their true identities, the participants were already experiencing changes in their own behavior by day two. The prisoners began adopting prisoner-like behavior such as rebelling and swearing at the guards as they walked by.
Describe and evaluate research into pacemakers and zeitgebers Endogenous pacemakers act as the ‘internal biological clock’ within the human body- e.g they act independently of external factors. Zeitgebers are external factors that influence when we feel tired, such as lack of light. There has been much research into both over the last few decades. One of the main studies into the effects of pacemakers on the circadian rhythm of human is a study done by scientist and explorer, Michael Siffre. He spent six months in a Texan cave in 1975 and during this time he didn’t receive any cues as to whether it was day or night.
Max Gillies Psychology 103 Ms. Andrews 5/1/10 The Stanford Prison Experiment In 1971 one of the most prestigious schools in the country, a well accomplished professor and selected group of local students began one of the most controversial and thought inspiring case studies in history. Setting out to see how people react when they have either authoritarian positions or submissive ones. The thesis being that the prison, in this case the modified Stanford basement, controls the situation rather than the people inside of it. What the experiment reveled was a disturbing glimpse at the human psyche. The experiment quickly took on a very serious tone.
Those who victimize are able to do so because the process of dehumanization elevates their self concept and desensitizes them to the evil they inflict. In the Stanford prison experiment, they took 21 college students and created a fake prison. In this prison they assigned the roles of prisoners and guards. The prisoners were given symbols of weakness like smocks with stocking caps, ball and chain and numbers instead of names. Where as the guards were given symbols of power like sunglasses,batons and whistles.
Students were randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners within a mock prison that had been constructed in the Stanford Psychology Department. In contrast to Milgram's studies, the objective was to observe the interaction within and between the two groups in the absence of an obviously malevolent authority. Here, again, the results proved shocking. Such was the abuse meted out to the prisoners by the guards that the study had to be terminated after just 6 days. Zimbardo's conclusion from this was even more alarming than Milgram's.