Zimbardo experiment

Question 1

IV

Answer 1

the conditions the participants were randomly allocated to, either guard or prisoner.

Question 2

DV

Answer 2

the measure individual/group in their behaviour in its response. (The resulting behaviour)

Question 3

participants

Answer 3

the experiment selected 24 psychologically healthy men to take part in the experiment. At the toss of a coin, these 24 men were either placed in a guard/superintendent position or a prisoner position. This is a form of random sampling

Question 4

method

Answer 4

participants were to act according to their roles. guards would inflict punishments on prisoners, prisoners lives in cells etc.

Question 5

results

Answer 5

The guards became increasingly more cruel over the course of the experiment
The guards regularly harassed and abused the prisoners (eg. Forced prisoners to perform difficult physical activities, verbally harassed the prisoners, forced them to take part in sexual behaviours.)
Some of the prisoners broke down due to being placed in a situation of high distress
Zimbardo was told to end the experiment six days in after realising that the experiment was potentially cruel and immoral.

Question 6

criticisms

Answer 6

violation of the no harm principle

violation of withdrawal rights

Question 7

ethical issues

Answer 7

He didn’t give the prisoners a choice to leave the experiment at any time. He only allowed them to leave after they had a mental breakdown.
Zimbardo himself took part in the experiment. He became so engrossed in his study that he could not realise when the experiment went to far. He should have stayed out the experiment and observed rather than taking part and seeing how far he could push the prisoners.