Zimbardo PSYC101

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American Military University *

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101

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Sociology

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Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by CountMosquitoPerson917

1. Was it ethical to do the prison study in the way that Zimbardo conducted it? Why or why not? Explain your position substantively I don’t believe the Stanford Prison Experiment was ethical for multiple reasons. Participants in the study were not fully aware of the extreme conditions they would be subjected to and the potential harm it could cause. Informed consent is an important principle in ethical research, ensuring that participants are informed about the nature of the study and its potential risks before agreeing to participate. In this study, participants were deceived and were not prepared for the psychological distress they experienced. Participants were assigned roles rather than volunteering for them, which raises concerns about coercion and manipulation. They might have felt pressured to continue participating even if they were uncomfortable, as they might have believed they had no other choice. 2. What social psychological constructs did the study reveal? Would the same information have been learned if the study had been conducted differently? If yes, how might you adapt the study to address ethical concerns and still obtain results relevant to our understanding of behavior in social settings? The participants in the study experienced deindividuation, which is the loss of individual identity and a weakening of personal restraints when people find themselves in groups or unfamiliar situations. In the prison environment, the participants' individual identities were replaced by their assigned roles, leading to extreme behaviors that they might not have exhibited outside of the experiment. I personally don’t believe participants would have behaved the same if the study had been conducted differently. Due to the ethical issues in the study regarding informed consent and coercion. If the participants weren’t made to feel forced, I don’t think participants would experience deindividuation, or at least to the same extent as they did in Zimbardo’s study. In order to address ethical concerns, I would adapt the study by providing detailed and thorough consent to the participants and giving them the right to withdraw. 3. How do the social psychology concepts of conformity and the power of the social situation that we are studying this week relate to what happened

during the brief period of time that the prison study ran. Where in the description of how the study unfolded did we see evidence of these concepts? The presence of authority figures (the researchers and the guards) and the hierarchy established within the prison setting gave the guards a sense of power and control over the prisoners. This power dynamic led to the abusive behaviors exhibited by some guards and the submissive responses from the prisoners. The power of the social situation was so overwhelming that both the guards and prisoners seemed to forget they were part of an experiment, and their behaviors became extreme resulting in the study being terminated early. The prisoners demonstrated conformity by allowing the guards to take control over them even though it was a simulated situation, and the power of the social situation contributed to the guards behavior.

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