Stanford Prison Experiment

Methodology: What was the corridor called?

"The Yard"

Methodology: How much money were the participant students paid per day?

$15/day

Results: In less than a week, the experience of imprisonment undid what?

(temporally) a lifetime of learning

Results: How long was the experiment supposed to last for?

2 weeks

Methodology: How many people participated in the study?

24

Methodology: How many people answered the ad?

70

Guards: How many hours per day did the guards work?

8 hours

Methodology: How were the participants divided into groups?

Arbitrarily divided into 2 groups by a flip of the coin: half were guards & half were prisoners

Prisoners: How were the prisoners surprised when they were first taken?

Arrested & blindfolded & driven to the "Stanford County Jail" for further processing; searched, fingerprinted and booked

Methodology: How did they construct the prison?

Boarding up each end of a corridor in the basement of Psychology Dept.

Methodology: How did they closely simulate a prison environment?

Called upon the services of experienced consultants

Methodology: Who were the people that participated in the study?

College students, relatively normal on all tested dimensions

Methodology: Describe the nature of "The Hole"

Dark, confining, ~2 x 2, tall enough that a "bad prisoner" could stand up

Conclusions: How is the mere act of assigning labels extreme? Explain with this experiment.

Extreme enough to modify in very significant ways fundamental attitudes and behavior: Prison situation is guaranteed to generate severe enough pathological reactions in both guards and prisoners as to debase their humanity, lower their feelings of self-worth and make it difficult for them to be part of a society outside of the prison

Results: Why was the experiment shut down earlier than intended?

Mock prison became frightening; No longer apparent to most where reality ended and roles began; No longer able to differentiate between role playing and self; Dramatic changes in all aspects of their behavior, thinking, and feeling

Methodology: "The Yard" (corridor) was the only outside place to do what?

Only outside place allowed to walk, eat, or exercise

Conclusions: Is pathology predictable? Explain.

Pathology is not predictable from any available diagnostic indicators we have in the social sciences

By whom was the Stanford Prison Experiment made by?

Philip G. Zimbardo

What was the purpose of the experiment?

Study the psychological effects of prison life i.e. What were the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard? Also to Set up a simulated prison and then carefully note the effects of this institution on the behavior of all those within its walls.

Conclusions: Why does the growing body of social psychology research underscore the conclusion derived from this prison study?

The majority can be made to do almost anything when put into psychologically compelling situations - regardless of their morals, ethics, values, attitudes, or personal convictions

Conclusions: What's sufficient to elicit pathological behavior?

The mere act of assigning labels to people and putting them into a situation where those labels acquire validity and meaning

Conclusions: What do we each carry around in our heads? (pertaining to image)

a favorable self-image in which we are essentially just, fair, humane and understanding

Methodology: What type of participants did the study have

an average group of healthy, intelligent, middle-class males.

Conclusions: Why do we underestimate the power and pervasiveness of situational controls over behaviour?

because they are non-obvious and subtle, can often avoid entering situations where we might be so controlled, we label as "weak" or "deviant" people in those situations who do behave differently from how we believe we would

Conclusions: How do we create an illusion of freedom?

by attributing more internal control to ourselves, to the individual, than actually exists

Results: What day was the experiment shut down on?

day 6

What were the roles of the groups (prison guards group and prisoners group)?

differentiation of functions within a group, the set of behaviors that individuals occupying specific positions within a group are expected to perform

Methodology: Where was the toilet?

down the hallway

Results: What were the results in human behavior in the experiment?

human values were suspended, Self-concepts were challenged, Ugliest pathological side of human nature surfaced

Methodology: Where were its first prisoners waiting?

in the detention cells of the Palo Alto Police Department.

Methodology: What did they randomly do with guards and prisoners?

interviews

Methodology: What was the effect of having no windows or clocks to judge the passage of time?

later resulted in some time-distorting experiences

Methodology: Were there any differences between boys assigned to be a prisoner and boys assigned to be a guard?

no

Methodology: Were there any windows or clocks to judge the passage of time?

no

Conclusions: Individual behavior is largely under the control of what rather than on what?

of social forces and environmental contingencies rather than personality traits, character, will power or other empirically unvalidated constructs

Prisoners: How were the prisoners brought to jail?

one at a time

Methodology: How did they create prison cells?

replaced lab doors with steel bars & cell numbers

Methodology: Describe the intercom system of the experiment.

secretly bug the cells to monitor what the prisoners discussed, & to make public announcements to the prisoners

Methodology: What was opposite the cells?

small closet - "The Hole," aka solitary confinement

Methodology: What was at the end of the hall?

small opening through which events were videotaped & recorded

Methodology: Why were the prisoners blindfolded as they went to the bathroom?

so as not to know the way out of the prison

Guards: What were the guards made aware of?

the potential seriousness and danger of the situation and their own vulnerability

Conclusions: What do we underestimate?

the power and pervasiveness of situational controls over behaviour

Prisoners: What did the prisoners convey as they became prisoners?

the seriousness of their offense and their new status as prisoners.

Prisoners: Who were the prisoners greeted by?

the warden

Guards: What did the guards make up? What were they free to do?

their own formal rules for maintaining law, order and respect and were free to improvise new ones

Methodology: After the diagnostic interviews, who were eliminated?

those with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse.

Guards: How many men/guards were there per shift?

three

Methodology: E.g., former prisoner who served 17 yrs. behind bars is an example of what and what function did it serve?

to closely simulate a prison environment; made them aware of what it was like to be a prisoner

Methodology: With these features in place (intercom system, random interviews, no windows nor clocks), what was the jail ready for?

to receive its first prisoners

Methodology: How did people get recruited?

via an ad, and then they had to go through diagnostic interviews