PSYC 2700H Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Stanford Prison Experiment, Dave Eshelman, Deindividuation

• School: Trent University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2700H
• Professor: Jared Allen

Document Summary

The study, for the participants, is simply an observation of what it is like to be a guard or prisoner in a prison. By the second day, guards began to treat prisoners cruelly and dole out punishment: largel(cid:455) attri(cid:271)uta(cid:271)le to (cid:862)(cid:271)oredo(cid:373)(cid:863) a(cid:374)d the(cid:374) leadership of o(cid:374)e guard the(cid:455) (cid:271)ega(cid:374) to (cid:272)all. Prisoners started rebellion, guards became increasingly sadistic (cid:862)got lose is their roles(cid:863) Prisoners forgot they could leave if they asked. Had to stop the study after 6 days due to nervous breakdowns by prisoners. Guard abuses: stripping prisoners, sex stimulation, bags on heads, forced discomfort, humiliation, assaults, degradation. Alternative perspective 2: behaviour could have been due to obedience to some imagined singular authority (not the situation itself) This is rather convenient given that he was the ultimate authority. Basic human morality prevents replication of the zimbardo study. Arguably, situationism is replicated in any extreme situations where neighbours and strangers are led to harm and abuse each other (e. g. , rwanda)