To what extent can Zimbardo’s experiment help to explain the abuse that occurs in prison e.g. Abu Ghraib (12 marks)
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a landmark psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances. It was conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University.
The Stanford experiment is the study human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life. Participants were randomly assigned to play the role of "prisoner" or "guard". Those assigned to play the role of guard were given sticks and sunglasses; those assigned to play the Prisoners were arrested at their own homes, without warning, and taken to the local police station and, forced to wear chains and prison clothes, and transported to the basement of the Stanford psychology department, which had been converted into a jail.
Several of the guards became progressively more sadistic particularly at night when they thought the cameras were off. The experiment quickly got out of hand and a riot broke out on day two. One prisoner developed a psychosomatic rash all over his body upon finding out that his "parole" had been turned down. After only 6 days, the experiment was shut down; for fear that one of the prisoners would be seriously hurt.
Although the intent of the experiment was to examine prison life, the results is used to demonstrate how people are more likely to mistreat people when provided with a legitimizing system and social and institutional support (e.g. prison). It is also used to illustrate the power seniority/authority.
It can be argued that the conclusions that Professor Zimbardo and others have drawn from the Stanford Prison Experiment are not valid. Professor Zimbardo was not merely an observer in the experiment but an active participant and in some cases it is clear he was influencing