PSYB10H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Webcam, Death Of Brandon Vedas, Homeopathy
Document Summary
1971 study the behavioral and psychological consequences of becoming a prisoner (chain = symbolized loss of freedom) or prisoner guard. The researchers set up a mock prison in the basement of stanford university"s psychology building, and then selected 24 undergraduate students to play the roles of both prisoners and guards. The participants were selected from a larger group of 70 volunteers because they had no criminal background, lacked psychological issues and had no major medical conditions. The volunteers agreed to participate for a one- to two-week period in exchange for a day. The 24 volunteers were then randomly assigned to either the prisoner group or the guard group. Prisoners were to remain in the mock prison 24-hours a day for the duration of the study. While the stanford prison experiment was originally slated to last 14 days, it had to be stopped after just six days.