Stanford Prison Experiment - Professor Philip Zimbardo (1971)

Background and Context

• Conducted by: Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University.
• Purpose: To investigate how ordinary people behave when assigned roles of guards and prisoners.
• Historical context:
  • Post-World War II concerns about human behavior in wartime atrocities.
  • Interest in understanding events such as the Vietnam War and the role of social roles in these contexts.

Experiment Design

• Setup:
  • Participants were randomly assigned to roles of guards or prisoners.
  • Mock prison created in Stanford's psychology department basement.
  • Prisoners: Arrested by real police officers, wore smocks and sandals, stayed 24/7 in the mock prison.
  • Guards: Wore uniforms, sunglasses, carried sticks, worked in shifts.
• Objective: Observe behavior changes based on assigned roles.

Observations and Outcomes

• Behavior Changes:
  • Guards embraced roles, began to exert power, often resorted to humiliation and punishment.
  • Prisoners became submissive, showed stress, anxiety, and depression.
  • Notable incidents:
    • Toilet cleaning with bare hands.
    • Escalation of aggression and arbitrary control by guards.
• Duration and Termination:
  • Originally planned for two weeks, terminated after six days due to extreme conditions.

Theoretical Implications

• Key Insight: Social context and roles significantly influence behavior more than individual personality.
• Shift in Perspective: Emphasized social structural factors over personality traits in explaining behavior.
• Group Identity: Showed the power of group roles and identities in altering behavior.

Ethical and Methodological Impact

• Ethical Concerns:
  • Raised questions about the ethical boundaries in social psychology experiments.
  • Led to debates on acceptable practices and tighter ethical guidelines in research.

Analytical Perspectives

• Power Dynamics: Analyzed to understand power relations and historical/cultural contexts.
• Individual vs. Society: Studied the balance between individual choices and societal structures.

Conclusion

• Zimbardo's experiment had a profound impact on the understanding of human psychology, social roles, and ethical standards in research. It remains a pivotal study in social psychology and a reference point for discussions on ethics and behavior influenced by social contexts.