...Many studies and experiments of the past still face scrutiny by researchers, scientists and many other people in all different fields today. Many of them have been criticized due to their unethical treatment of their subjects. Because of this, the psychological community has established a special group of people and guidelines called the Institutional Review Board that analyzes whether or not a study is ethical before it is even allowed to proceed. This board was established in 1974, three years after a study known as the Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted. The Stanford Prison Experiment began in 1971 when a psychologist named Philip Zimbardo came up with a question; he wanted to know if the brutality reported among guards in American...
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...The Stanford Prison Experiment was unethical for a number of reasons. According to McLeod (2007), for research to be considered as being ethical, there should be informed consent from the participants. Informed consent can only result if all participants have been given adequate information on the purpose of the research and the procedures to be used in the study. Additionally, informed consent depends on the participant’s full understanding of any dangers they may face during the research. However, in the Stanford case, participants were not fully debriefed on risks of participation in the experiment (Chang, 2015). Additionally, the researcher, Zimbardo promoted an unpredictable research that himself could not predict the outcome. Consequently, any consent may have been gotten through deception (McLeod, 2007). Again, the research was unethical as it exposed participants to unknown dangers. As a result, two participants had to remove from the experiment before its conclusion. Indeed, participants playing the role of prisoners were exposed to psychological and physical abuse. For instance, one participant who played the role of a prisoner had to be released before the due time because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming and crying after being subjected to abuse (Rubina, 2015). Again, the Stanford research was unethical since it was ended prematurely before fully debriefing participants about its success or failure. More importantly, the study broke research ethics...
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...psychology professor at Stanford University. Zimbardo researching how prisoners and guards learned submissive and authoritarian roles. There was an ad placed in the newspaper by Zimbardo seeking male subjects to participate in his research experiment. There was a $15 per day compensation offered to the chosen participants. There were roughly 75 people to respond to the professors ad. However there were only 25 chosen to participate in the experiment needed for a study of prison life. Zimbardo designed his experiment to go the duration of 15 days. The men who were selected to participate in the experiment were separated into two groups, the prisoners in one group, guards in the other. Zimbardo informed them all their rights would be violated and they were to be harassed. Phillip K. Zimbardo’s reason for conducting the Stanford Prison experiment was to expand upon Milgram’s research. It was Zimbardo’s desire to further investigate the impact of situational variables on human behavior. According to Christian perspective with this study we as followers of Jesus Christ should avoid being disrespectful, confrontational and dehumanizing to one another no matter one’s current social situation(s). We should approach one another with an open mind and not judging one another for our sins or wrong doings. Approaching the situations when enforcing rules is one thing but to put one down, break ones’ spirits are not Christ like. The Stanford Prison Experiment would not be allowed to...
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...“Quiet Rage”, psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted a prison experiment at Stanford University aiming to gain knowledge in regards to the development of norms, roles, labels, and social expectations in a prison environment. Throughout this experiment Zimbardo lost control of the situation as the participants lost their own identities and became greatly involved with the roles that they were expected to act upon. As a result Zimbardo had to terminate the experiment before the study was completed due to unethical issues. The experiment was unethical, but it was a necessity in order to have acquired this beneficial knowledge that we possess today even though the trade off was inappropriate for the participants. Numerous reasons exist to why the experiment has violated the ethical standards. For example, the students who had played the role of prisoners were treated unethically by forcing them to clean the toilet with their bare hands, and were placed in total confinement of spaces that were only standing room for more than 24hrs. But why would the prisoners blindly follow the guards? According to Giddens, the size of a group affects the “quality of interaction and the capability of the group in accomplishing certain tasks” (Giddens 132). The more the prisoners the more likely they would conform to the guards even though the orders were harsh and unethical. One study that supports the theory of conformity was the experiment Asch Task, where participants were shown one standard...
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...Sociology and psychology go hand in hand in some aspects and this can be seen explicitly in the experiments zimbardo’s Stanford Prison, and Milgram’s study on obedience. These experements, although unethical, provide a clear glimpse into a human’s obedience toward authority and conforming into social roles. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison was an experiments by Philip G. Zembardo to see if and how readily people would conform to the roles given to them in a guard and prisoner setting. The experiment was kept as real as possible by going so far as to have the participents arrested, booked, and transported to a mock prison build in the Stanford psychology building’s basement. In aditon to the arrest they were stiped naked, relieved of their possesions, delouced, and given a set of prison cloths with only a number to symbolize them, and had a chain tied around their anckle to remind them of their captivity. Ultimately the participandtss began to conform the...
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...The Stanford Prison Experiment was unethical for a number of reasons. According to McLeod (2007), for research to be considered as being ethical, there should be informed consent from the participants. Informed consent can only result if all participants have been given adequate information on the purpose of the research and the procedures to be used in the study. Additionally, informed consent depends on the participant’s full understanding of any dangers they may face during the research. However, in the Stanford case, participants were not fully debriefed on risks of participation in the experiment (Chang, 2015). Additionally, the researcher, Zimbardo promoted an unpredictable research that himself could not predict the outcome. Consequently, any consent may have been gotten through deception (McLeod, 2007). Again, the research was unethical as it exposed participants to unknown dangers. As a result, two participants had to remove from the experiment before its conclusion. Indeed, participants playing the role of prisoners were exposed to psychological and physical abuse. For instance, one participant who played the role of a prisoner had to be released before the due time because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming and crying after being subjected to abuse (Rubina, 2015). Again, the Stanford research was unethical since it was ended prematurely before fully debriefing participants about its success or failure. More importantly, the study broke research ethics...
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...Research Paper: 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment Joseph Roby Carrington College Wednesday, December 4, 2013 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment It’s been over 42 years now since an illustrious experiment was performed by a couple of Stanford Psychologists that would ultimately change the course on how we look at people with the right of authority. In 1971, Psychology Professor Dr. Phillip Zimbardo operated a psychology experiment called the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment to see just how ordinary people would react when given authority over another helpless being. This experiment would take place inside the psychology rooms of the Stanford College, and would durate between the dates of August 14, 1971 to August 20, 1971. Guards would be hired and given legitimate power over mock prisoners to see what levels of domestication they would impose on them. The experiment would start off cool and harmonious, but would eventually take a blinding turn for the worst. After just six days the experiment was brought to an unforeseen end and never reached the two week frame that it was given. In just those six days Dr. Zimbardo, and eventually a wide audience, would forever know the 1971 Stanford prison experiment as an experiment that would change the amount of power someone could and will be given in a title of authority. It was never Dr. Zimbardo’s intention to create something so impactful, or maybe just not in the way it impacted our society. Before his experiment the citizens who...
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...Zimbardo Prison Experiment Ryan Iden IPFW The Zimbardo Prison Experiment Professor Philip Zimbardo was a professor at Stanford University and he wanted to do an experiment on how students “inmates” would react to the power of the guards and how they would respond to being a prisoner for 14 days. This prison was a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University and the experiment only lasted 6 days because the voluntary students started to get stressed out and feeling demoralized by the guards. The guards were starting to act aggressive and abusive to the students. The guards would strip them of their clothes, yell at them and make them submit to their authority. The guards and the inmates were actually starting to act as though they were in prison. This experiment to me is not unethical. The students volunteered and they also knew that this was just an experiment. I do agree that some of the guard’s motives were a little too extreme for the experiment, but al-in all the students knew what they were getting into. Some people would say that this is to extreme putting these students through all the stress and torment just for an experiment. If this was real I would say yes that this is unethical. The issue that was the most problematic to was the fact that the professor actually wanted to do this experiment and did not stop the guards from treating the students the way they did. When the prisoners started to get stressed out they should have stopped the experiment right...
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...Comparison Between Milgram and Zimbardo’s Internationally Renowned Attempts at Ethics in Social Science Experiments David Baxter Park University SO220 Ethical Issues in Social Science Kris Reichart-Anderson 2 October 2011 Abstract For years many experiments have been scrutinized for their ineffective use or lack of establishment of ethical principles within their research. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgram’s Obedience experiment were ridiculed for the lack of ethics involved. Although these experiments caused unnecessary harm to their subjects they also acted as the foundation for the establishment of the Belmont Report, which in itself, would change research forever. Ethics in the Name of Science Two very controversial experiments have been dissected a thousand times over by some of social science’s most amazing minds as well as the academic populous worldwide. Though the Milgram experiment of 1962 and the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 were entirely different, they both shared the groundbreaking task of identifying the affects of “Obedience to Authority” (Milgram, 1974). Both social scientists believe they had identified the possible risks but fell short in their attempt to alleviate any ethical repercussions. This paper will address the attempts made to ensure moral and ethical studies were accomplished as well as identify where both experiments had major flaws in their plans to ensure no physical or emotional harm came to it’s subjects. ...
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...Milgram Experiments In this critical thinking assignment questions will be addressed that pertain to the Stanford prison experiment and the Milgram Experiment. The Milgram experiment participants were selected after responding to an advertisement to take part in a study at Yale University. The participants drew lots to find out who would be the "learner" and who would be the "teacher". Electrodes were placed on the learner and the teacher would ask questions, if question was answered incorrectly the learner would receive an electric shock. With each wrong answered the "learner" would receive a higher volt of shock("Milgram Experiment (Darren Brown),"n.d.). The Stanford Prison experiment participants were recruited by an advertisement placed in the newspaper offering male college students fifteen dollars a day to participate in a study of psychology of imprisonment. Participants were divided up into groups of two one group being the guards and the other group being the prisoners("Zimbardo shows how most evil comes from hierarachy," n.d.). The Stanford Prison experiment purpose was to understand the development of norms and the effects of positions, social expectations, and labels that are endured in a prison environment. Yes, this experiment is one that would be chosen to conduct. As the conditions worsened as happened in this experiment, with the elevation of guards abusing prisoners, it would be necessary to terminate the experiment early. It would of be unethical and detrimental...
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...psychological research of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted at Stanford University in 1971. Ethics will be defined and the concept of risk/benefit ratio will be discussed. The Stanford Prison Experiment will be described. Finally, the impact of the Stanford Prison Experiment on psychological research will be evaluated. Ethics Defined Ethics is concerned with the principles of right conduct. In the philosophical use, ethics is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the study of morals and how it is that moral decisions are made. Ethics also has a stricter use when dealing with the rules or standards that govern conduct and right behavior (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2000). Risk/Benefit Ratio Ethical approaches to research take into account the risk/benefit ratio. This simply means that the amount of benefit that comes from a study or research clearly outweighs any adverse risks to the subjects involved in the study or research. A study or research is only considered to be ethical if there is favorable risk benefit ratio (Wikipedia, 2008). Background on the Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford Prison Experiment was created by Professor Philip Zimbardo who led a team of researchers at Stanford University in 1971. The study was designed to observe and study the human responses to captivity by both the inmates and the authority figures. In order to carry out the experiment, a mock prison was created in the basement of the Stanford psychology building and 24...
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...be able to: • List and describe the basic steps for conducting scientific research, and know and discuss the research methods that sociologists use and the strengths and limitations of each. • Summarize the core concepts of sociology and recognize and explain the “sociological imagination” when viewing social phenomena and your own life. View the Zimbardo Stanford Prison experiment: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jYx8nwjFQ Watch Derren Brown reenactment of the Milgram experiments: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6GxIuljT3w&feature=related As you complete this activity, think about the following: • Where do we draw the line between ethical and unethical research? • How can sociological research help us to better understand the world around us? The Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford prison experiment is a fairly well-known sociology study. Please go through the experiment slide show online at http://www.prisonexp.org/and answer the following questions. The slide show provides a number of video and audio clips that you may want to check out for additional information. Due to the nature of the experiment, you may want to avoid listening or watching these in the presence of small children. After viewing the slide show, please respond to the following critical thinking questions. Please know that each of these questions should require at least a full paragraph response and that you are expected to bring in details and specific references to the videos and slideshow...
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...Zimbardo Research Paper Dr. Zimbardo conducted a research study in 1971 where he took 24 male college students and divided them randomly between guards and prisoners. The guards created a “prison” like set up for their prisoners. The prisoners were arrested by real cops, blindfolded, hand cuffed and taken to the simulation prison where the guards brutalized, dehumanized, tortured them. The study was to see how behaviors change based upon a setting they were put into. Throughout this paper it will come to light on how unethical this study was but also how it changed the ways in which studies are now required to be handled with human participants (Films Media Group, 2012). Value of the Study in Relation to Social Psychology Dr. Zimbardo’s research study was able to show how healthy participants quickly changed their psychological and physical behaviors when they were placed into a prison like environment. The 24 participants were all good people who were put into a very bad situation where they had to choose to stay good or conform with the environment and do what they felt was rational behavior. This study was to last two weeks and after six days Dr. Zimbardo finally shut it down. This is because the prisoners were showing signs of extreme depression and stress anxiety, while the guards were becoming very abusive, hostile and dehumanizing the prisoners. There were only a few people who were able to not let conformity consume who they really were and destroy their...
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...corporations funded a what they called, “prison experiment” in 1971, with a goal of finding that the prison environment produces aggressive attitudes? Zimbardo conducted this experiment in the basement of the Psychology department at Stanford University. He took regular everyday college students like you and I made some prisoners and some guards, locked them up in a very small area, and evaluated their behaviors. The question is, how were the guards and the prisoners distinguished between? Now this is where the word evil comes in. In order to make the environment a real “evil” environment the guards wore hats and badges while the prisoners wore nothing but frowsy dresses. This was Zimbardo’s bright idea of an evil environment. So, does perception come into play? Does what each person perceives as evil environments make for a trustworthy study, setting out to support such a claim? Ultimately, did Zimbardo adequately reconstruct a fair representation of a true prison setting or did Zimbardo exaggerate that too? Well, according to two documentary professionals, this study did support that evil environments produces evil behaviors stated not only by Ratnesar’s, but also by Sheere. The funding corporations were kept a secret from the general public for more than 20 years. Just recently on July 4, 2011 a man named Michael Barker put the secret out. He wrote about it in a three part article written on the subject that the Stanford Prison Experiment was flawed in many ways. Why would...
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...Robyn-Lea Gentile University of Pheonix Zimbardo Research Paper Philip Zimbardo is the researcher behind the Stanford Prison Experiment. An experiment that changed the research world of psychology for the better. The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study that consisted of males who wanted to participate in 197, “Ultimately, we were left with a sample of 24 college students from the U.S. and Canada who happened to be in the Stanford area and wanted to earn $15/day by participating in a study” (Zimbardo, 2016). After the males were selected, half of them were going to be a prisoner while the other half were going to be guards, “It is important to remember that at the beginning of our experiment there were no differences between boys assigned to be a prisoner and boys assigned to be a guard” (Zimbardo, 2016). When the prisoners were set to be in the prison environment that was setup then the guards acted as real prisoner guards and went through a booking process for the prisoners. Is is very important to know that, “As with real prisoners, our prisoners expected some harassment, to have their privacy and some of their other civil rights violated while they were in prison, and to get a minimally adequate diet – all part of their informed consent agreement when they volunteered” (Zimbardo, 2016). Although things had seemed to go fine the first day of the experiment, the second day is when everything turned for the worse! The prisoners did not respect their uniform or guards anymore...
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