The Stanford Prison Experiment

Question 1

Some Classic Experiments in Social Psychology

Answer 1

The Milgram Experiment: demonstrated obedience to authority

The Stanford Prison Experiment: demonstrates situational attribution of behavior

The Asch Effect: demonstrated normative influence on conformity

Sherif’s Experiment on Norm Crystallization: demonstrates informational influence on conformity

Question 2

Major Researcher:

Answer 2

Philip Zimbardo

Question 3

Participants

Answer 3

• volunteers recruited through newspaper advertisements
• by random flip of coins, some volunteers were assigned the role of prisoners, others as guards
• all participants were law-abiding, emotionally stable, physically healthy, normal

Question 4

Results: Behaviors of the Prisoners:

Answer 4

• A riot broke out on the second day
• One prisoner began to act crazy by screaming + cursing; suffering was genuine
• On successive days, 3 more prisoners developed similar stress-related symptoms
• A prisoner developed a psychosomatic rash on his body

Question 5

Results: Behaviors of the Guards:

Answer 5

The guards punished the prisoners with their own methods

○ Taking away prisoners’ privileges to eat, sleep, wash, urinate, defecate

○ Not letting prisoners to empty the sanitation bucket; sanitary conditions declined rapidly

○ Humiliating prisoners by making them go nude, cleaning toilets with bare hands, doing push-ups with a guard stepped on the back

Question 6

Termination

Answer 6

The experiment was terminated after only 6 days while it was originally scheduled to last for 14 days

Question 7

Internalization of Roles

Answer 7

Both the guards and prisoners had internalized their roles

Guards exhibited genuine sadistic tendencies whereas the prisoners developed real stress-related symptoms

Question 8

Deindividuation

Answer 8

• A state of reduced individuality, reduced self-awareness, and reduced attention to personal standards
• This phenomenon may occur when people are part of a group

Question 9

Deindividuated

Answer 9

people often do things they would not do if they were alone or self-aware

Question 10

Stanford Prison: Deindividuation

Answer 10

accounts for the abusive behaviors of the guards in the Stanford Prison

Question 11

The Stanford Prison Experiment: Conclusion

Answer 11

• People try to adjust to the social roles assigned to them
• People are transformed by the roles that they are playing
• The results of the experiment support situational attribution of behavior, rather than dispositional attribution