Ethics in the Stanford Prison Experiment

CJA 324

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo and a group of colleagues created an experiment in 1971 that looked and replicated the impact of becoming a prisoner and a prison guard. The purpose of this experiment was to define the impact of the situational variables on human behavior. Researchers created questions and formatted the experiment to an exact science. The researchers chose to start with procedures. Starting with an officer picking up the volunteers, meals, showers, and isolation, Zimbardo, and his group of researchers could document human emotion, reaction, interaction, and psychosis. Because of this extensive experiment, society, and the volunteers involved were severely affected (Zimbardo, 1999-2011). Since 1971, different states...