Describe the Zimbardo experiment. Do you agree with Zimbardo’s assumption that the effects of being a prisoner or guard could fruitfully be studied in a mock prison with pretend prisoners? Do you find merit in the criticisms?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A simulated prison will be established somewhere in the vicinity of Palo Alto, Stanford [sic], to study a number of problems of psychological and sociological relevance. Paid volunteers will be randomly assigned to play the roles of either prisoners and guards [sic] for the duration of the study. This time period will vary somewhat from about five days to two weeks for any one volunteer—depending upon several factors, such as the “sentence” for the prisoner or the work effectiveness of the guards. Payment will be $80 a day for performing various activities and work associated with the operation of our prison. Each volunteer must enter a contractual arrangement with the principal investigator (Dr. P. G. Zimbardo) agreeing to participate for the full duration of the study. It is obviously essential that no prisoner can leave once jailed, except through established procedures. In addition, guards must report for their 8-hour work shifts promptly and regularly since surveillance by the guards will be around-the-clock—three work shifts will be rotated or guards will be assigned a regular shift—day, evening, or early morning. Failure to fulfill this contract will result in a partial loss of salary accumulated—according to a prearranged schedule to be agreed upon. Food and accommodations for the prisoners will be provided which will meet minimal standard nutrition, health, and sanitation requirements. A warden and several prison staff will be housed in adjacent cell blocks, meals and bedding also provided for them. Medical and psychiatric facilities will be accessible should any of the participants desire or require such services. All participants will agree to having their behavior observed and to be interviewed and perhaps also taking psychological tests. Films of parts of the study will be taken, participants agreeing to allow them to be shown, assuming their content has information of scientific value.
First, you are asked to complete a long questionnaire about your family background, physical and mental health history, and prior criminal involvement. Next, you are interviewed by someone, and then, you finally sign a consent form. A few days later, you are informed that you and 20 other young men have been selected to participate in the experiment. You return to the university to complete a battery of “psychological tests” and are told you will be picked up for the study the next day (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973, p. 73).
The next morning, you hear a siren just before a squad car stops in front of your house. A police officer charges you with assault and battery, warns you of your constitutional rights, searches and handcuffs you, and drives you off to the police station. After fingerprinting and a short stay in a detention cell, you are blindfolded and driven to the “Stanford County Prison.” Upon arrival, your blindfold is removed and you are stripped naked, skin-searched, deloused, and issued a uniform (a loosely fitting smock with an ID number printed on it), bedding, soap, and a towel. You don’t recognize anyone, but you notice that the other “prisoners” and the “guards” are college age, apparently almost all middle-class white men (except for one Asian) like you (Haney et al., 1973; Zimbardo, 1973).
The prison warden welcomes you:
As you probably know, I’m your warden. All of you have shown that you are unable to function outside in the real world for one reason or another—that somehow you lack the responsibility of good citizens of this great country. We of this prison, your correctional staff, are going to help you learn what your responsibilities as citizens of this country are.?.?.?.?If you follow all of these rules and keep your hands clean, repent for your misdeeds and show a proper attitude of penitence, you and I will get along just fine. (Zimbardo, 2008)
Among other behavioral restrictions, the rules stipulate that prisoners must remain silent during rest periods, during meals, and after lights out. They must address each other only by their assigned ID numbers, they are to address guards as “Mr. Correctional Officer,” and everyone is warned that punishment will follow any rule violation (Zimbardo, 1973).
You look around and can tell that you are in the basement of a building. You are led down a corridor to a small cell (6 x 9 feet) with three cots, where you are locked behind a steel-barred black door with two other prisoners (Exhibit 3.1). Located across the hall, there is a small solitary confinement room (2 x 2 x 7 feet) for those who misbehave. There is little privacy, since you realize that the uniformed guards, behind the mirrored lenses of their sunglasses, can always observe the prisoners. After you go to sleep, you are awakened by a whistle summoning you and the others for a roll call periodically through the night.
The next morning, you and the other eight prisoners must stand in line outside your cells and recite the rules until you remember all 17 of them. Prisoners must chant, “It’s a wonderful day, Mr. Correctional Officer.” Two prisoners who get out of line are put in the solitary confinement unit. After a bit, the prisoners in Cell 1 decide to resist: They barricade their cell door and call on the prisoners in other cells to join in their resistance. The guards respond by pulling the beds out from the other cells and spraying several of the inmates with a fire extinguisher. The guards succeed in enforcing control and become more authoritarian, while the prisoners become increasingly docile. Punishments are regularly meted out for infractions of rules and sometimes for seemingly no reason at all; punishments include doing push-ups, being stripped naked, having legs chained, and being repeatedly wakened during the night. If this were you, would you join in the resistance? How would you react to this deprivation of your liberty by these authoritarian guards? How would you respond, given that you signed a consent form allowing you to be subjected to this kind of treatment?
By the fifth day of the actual Stanford Prison Experiment, five student prisoners had to be released due to evident extreme stress (Zimbardo, 2008). On the sixth day, Philip Zimbardo terminated the experiment. A prisoner subsequently reported,
The way we were made to degrade ourselves really brought us down and that’s why we all sat docile towards the end of the experiment. (Haney et al., 1973)
One guard later recounted his experience:
I was surprised at myself.?.?.?.?I made them call each other names and clean the toilets out with their bare hands. I practically considered the prisoners cattle, and I kept thinking: “I have to watch out for them in case they try something.” (Zimbardo, 2008)
Esome idea of the difference in how the prisoners and guards behaved. What is most striking about this result is that all the guards and prisoners had been screened before the study began to ensure that they were physically and mentally healthy. The roles of guard and prisoner had been assigned randomly, by the toss of a coin, so the two groups were very similar when the study began. Something about the situation appears to have led to the deterioration of the prisoners’ mental states and the different behavior of the guards. Being a guard or a prisoner, with rules and physical arrangements reinforcing distinctive roles, changed their behavior.