Stanford Prison Questions

Name SHRIYA BAWEJA

Central question of the experiment (answer this before viewing the documentary):

1.     “Does the situation outside of you—the institution—come to control your behavior, or do the things inside of you—your attitude, your values, your morality—allow you to rise above a negative environment?” –Philip G. Zimbardo

I firmly believe it is a combination of whom we are as an individual— our attitude, values, and morals— that can allow us to overcome the hurdles encountered in life. While external circumstances unequivocally play an instrumental role in one’s life, it is from within that one can bring about a change as the ultimate power lies in the hands of an individual in regards to the choices he or she may decide to follow through with.

Learn about the Stanford Prison Experiment:
Watch the BBC Documentary:  BBC Documentary on Stanford Prison Experiment

Or research http://www.prisonexp.org/rebellion

2.     Background: What had Milgram’s study shown?

Milgram’s study was centered on exploring how individuals respond to authority and to what extent people are reduced to obey unjust regimes under an authoritarian figure. Accordingly, the horrifying results of the experiment established the fact that even decent American citizens were as capable of committing deploring acts against their conscience as the Germans had been under the Nazis.

3.     Consider the psychological consequences of stripping, delousing, and shaving the heads of prisoners or members of the military. What transformations take place when people go through an experience like this?

The biggest transformation is the life-scarring trauma that an individual is tainted with after going through experiences as such. As reflected in the documentary as well, the prisoners exhibited signs of distorted delusionary thoughts and even expressed the distressing sense of losing their true identity.

4.     During the experiment, how did the prisoners and guards conform to their roles?

The participants of the experiment were randomly designated the roles of prisoner or guard: the prisoners were relegated to a serial number and were imprisoned in small cells whereas the guards were given military uniforms to essentially authenticate the role of either. Accordingly, the guards began to exert total power in the simulated environment and the prisoners were subjugated to their control. Moreover, the guards were given opaque sunglasses to mitigate their humanity as they committed a sequence of vile acts. The guards began to conjure creative methods of demeaning the prisoners and inflicting on them absolute torture as they displayed authoritarian measures. In turn many of the prisoners developed passive attitudes and accepted physical abuse.

5.     How did even Zimbardo, the psychologist conducting the experiment, conform to his role as a prison superintendent?

Zimbardo commenced the process by briefing the guards to maintain law and order as stipulated by his role as the prison superintendent. In doing so, he began to lose sight of his true role as a psychologist and permitted the abuse to continue as though it were a real prison. The line between reality and the simulation became awfully blurred for Zimbardo himself.

6.     How did the guards break the solidarity of the prisoners?

The aim of breaking the solidarity of the prisoners was accomplished by retaliating once prisoner’s rebellion by inflicting torture on the other prisoner’s, which thus caused a breach in the union of the prisoners. Moreover, the guards urged the prisoners to vent their anger directly to the culpable prisoner making them detest each other.

7.     How did the good guards react to what the bad guards were doing?

The good guards refused to acknowledge the actions of the bad guards and hence took on roles such as being the gofer so they did not have to witness the manifestation of excruciating atrocities on the fellow participants. Hence, the good guards did not intervene or attempt to hinder the process as the bad guards became more sadistic over time.

8.     What are Zimbardo’s conclusions about human behavior, based on this experiment?

According to Zimbardo, the study shows that power corrupts and further revealed how difficult it is for victims of abuse to stand up for themselves in situations as the one simulated.