Stanford Prison Experiment Flashcards
What was the procedure?
A mock prison was set up in the basment of Stanford university and volounteers were arrested and taken to the prison. Participants were randomly assigned roles and prisoners were assigned numbers and all possessions were taken away. The guards were given handcuffs, wooden clubs and sunglasses and had control over the prisoners.
What were the findings of the experiment?
Within two days the rebelled and ripped off their uniforms and the guards put the best behaved prisoners in a privilege cell. One prisoner was released on the first day due to psychological disturbance and two more were released later. The guards became more brutal and 1/3 showed sadistic behaviour. The study only lasted six days instead of two weeks after behaviour became a threat to their health.
What did the experiment conclude?
That the situation can influence behaviour and shows how participants conform to social roles. It also shows how situational variables cause police brutality in American prisons.
What are the strengths of the experiment?
There was a lot of control over variables as they were all checked for psychological issues and so the behaviour was due to the situation. The control increased the internal validity of the study.
Zimbardo also used quantative data to show 90% of conversations were about prison life, which prove the situation was very real to them.
What are the weaknesses of the experiment?
Banuazizi and Mohavedi argued that participants were acting based on stereotypes seen in films and so weren’t genuinely conforming. Fromm said that Zimbardo was exaggerating the influence of situational variables and that personality was very important in their behaviour. There was also a BBC Prison study which gave very different results as the prisoners rebelled and so showed that the experiment wasn’t repeatable. Also, there were ethical issues as if they asked to be released Zimbardo replied as if he was running the prison, which meant they could’t withdraw.
