Basic Psychology Help Please!

Original post by Summer Rose

What are the ethical issues in the Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo) and why did he break them? Thank you x

EDIT: I am aware of deception and protection of participants/from harm

An interesting piece of trivia is that he only stopped the experiment when a student of his pointed out how cruel it was. This student later went on to be his wife. Would he have stopped it had he not felt something for her? (Not terribly useful, sorry, just interesting).

Deception and protection from participants are the key ones. I doubt you'd get a question worth more than 4 marks about this, so I'd suggest fleshing out your understanding of those two points.

Reply 2

Is that the one where the scientists asked a group of people to be "wardens" and "prisoners" and they had to stop it before it got out of hand?

Reply 3

Original post by scrawlx101

Is that the one where the scientists asked a group of people to be "wardens" and "prisoners" and they had to stop it before it got out of hand?

Yep, and it had already gotten out of hand a while before they stopped it.

Reply 4

OP

Original post by scrawlx101

Is that the one where the scientists asked a group of people to be "wardens" and "prisoners" and they had to stop it before it got out of hand?

Yes, guards and prisoners.. Here you go, I did this myself: :smile:

The Stanford Prison Experiment- Zimbardo (1973)
Aim: Investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life. Zimbardo was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards or had more to do with the prison environment.
Procedure:
● Lab experiment- Stanford University basement converted into a mock prison
• Opportunity sampling- Advertised $15 per day, 21 male volunteers screened for psychological normality
• Randomly allocated into 2 groups- Guards and Prisoners
• Prisoners: Arrested at home and taken to police station where they were fingerprinted, photographed and ‘booked’. Then blindfolded and taken to mock prison where they were stripped naked, deloused and had all personal possessions locked away. They were given a smock, a tight nylon cap and were chained on one ankle. They were referred to by their number and had to stay in the prison.
• Guards: Went home after shifts. There were 3 guards to the 9 prisoners and were given khaki uniform, dark sunglasses, whistles and handcuffs. No physical violence permitted.

Findings:
• Roles were adopted very quickly, within hours some guards began to harass prisoners, behaving in a brutal and sadistic manner. Other guards joined in
• Prisoners were taunted with insults and petty orders, given pointless and boring tasks to accomplish, and they were generally dehumanized
• The prisoners started ‘telling tales’ on each other, took the rules very seriously and began siding with guards against prisoners not conforming to the rules
• The prisoners slowly became more dependent on the guards. The guards became more derisive towards them, prisoners became more submissive. This made the guards become more aggressive and assertive.
• One prisoner had to be removed after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying, and anger. His thinking became disorganized and he appeared to be entering the early stages of a deep depression. Within the next few days 3 others also had to leave after showing signs of emotional disorder that could have had lasting consequences.
• The study had to close down after 6 days instead of a fortnight.

Conclusion:
People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are strongly stereotyped like the guards. The ‘prison’ environment was an important factor in creating the guards’ brutal behaviour (none of the guards showed sadistic tendencies before the study). Therefore the roles that people play can shape their behaviour and attitudes.

Reply 5

OP

Original post by PythianLegume

An interesting piece of trivia is that he only stopped the experiment when a student of his pointed out how cruel it was. This student later went on to be his wife. Would he have stopped it had he not felt something for her? (Not terribly useful, sorry, just interesting).

Deception and protection from participants are the key ones. I doubt you'd get a question worth more than 4 marks about this, so I'd suggest fleshing out your understanding of those two points.

Really? Yeah that IS interesting actually :tongue:

Reply 6

Is there also a marshmellow experiment to do with children?

I'm taking psychology next year in A-Level.

Reply 7

Original post by scrawlx101

Is there also a marshmellow experiment to do with children?

I'm taking psychology next year in A-Level.

It's not really related, but is a very interesting study. Children are told they can eat a marshmallow now, or wait for the researcher to come back in a few minutes and they get 2. Those who can defer gratification at an early age perform better on a number of metrics later in life (e.g. academic achievment, wealth).

Reply 8

OP

Original post by PythianLegume

An interesting piece of trivia is that he only stopped the experiment when a student of his pointed out how cruel it was. This student later went on to be his wife. Would he have stopped it had he not felt something for her? (Not terribly useful, sorry, just interesting).

Deception and protection from participants are the key ones. I doubt you'd get a question worth more than 4 marks about this, so I'd suggest fleshing out your understanding of those two points.

Could you please expand on deception and protection of participants for me please? Im not really sure of how to get the full 4 marks :redface:

Thanks in advance :smile:

Reply 9

Original post by Summer Rose

Could you please expand on deception and protection of participants for me please? Im not really sure of how to get the full 4 marks :redface:

Thanks in advance :smile:

Well assuming your exams work like mine did, you'd get 1 mark each for identifying a valid ethical issue and 1 more mark for suitable elaboration. All you have to do is write a few sentences about how participants were deceived and the various ways they were harmed. An interesting thing to consider is that not just the prisoners may have been damaged. The guards may have been shocked to discover a side of themselves they weren't aware existed. Look into it yourself - the internet is a great source, and my memory of the study isn't too accurate. :tongue:

Reply 10

Original post by PythianLegume

It's not really related, but is a very interesting study. Children are told they can eat a marshmallow now, or wait for the researcher to come back in a few minutes and they get 2. Those who can defer gratification at an early age perform better on a number of metrics later in life (e.g. academic achievment, wealth).

Is there anywhere I can go which has a list of all the case studies? I want to get a head start on my classmates!

Reply 11

Original post by scrawlx101

Is there anywhere I can go which has a list of all the case studies? I want to get a head start on my classmates!

Well your college/sixth form will likely have a recommended textbook you could buy. You could always send them an e-mail and buy the book early. But I warn you that they won't all be as interesting as the Stanford Prison or Marshmallow experiment.

Another study I really like is one done by researchers called Clark & Hatfield. They sent stooges to ask strangers around campus for either a date, to come back to theirs or straight up for sex. The gender differences are interesting to see.

Reply 12

There was also another case study to do with electric shocks and soilders I belive.It was mentioned at my taster day.

Reply 13

Original post by scrawlx101

There was also another case study to do with electric shocks and soilders I belive.It was mentioned at my taster day.

Soldiers might be another study, but the Milgram Shock Experiments are the other ones always mentioned at these things.

Reply 14

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