& THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT AJ Malisheski ZIMBARDO - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

PHILIP ZIMBARDO & THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

AJ Malisheski

ZIMBARDO

EARLY LIFE

• Born in 1933 in New York City
• Son of immigrants from Sicily. Father was an electrician, mother was a

homemaker

• Attended James Monroe High School with Milgram.
• Earned a BA in Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology at Brooklyn

College

• Earned M.S. in Psychology in 1955, Doctorate in Psychology in 1959 from Yale

University

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

• Taught at Yale from 1959-60
• Professor of Psychology at New York University from 1960-67
• Professor at Columbia University from 1967-68
• Professor at Stanford University from 1968-2003*
• Founder and Director of the Stanford Shyness Clinic in 1977
• Professor at Palo Alto University from 2006-2014

OTHER NOTABLE WORK

• Shyness Clinic
• President of the American Psychological Association
• Time Perspective Theory and Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory
• Heroic Imagination Project
• Social Intensity Syndrome

THE EXPERIMENT

BACKGROUND

• Zimbardo grew up in poverty in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York

City

• Lived an “urban ghetto” lifestyle
• No parental oversight
• Systematic power came in the form of landlords, police
• Seemingly good kids became product of their environment
• Neighborhood street gang initiations

AIM OF THE STUDY

• To 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 (i.e. dispositional) or had more to do with the prison environment (i.e. situational).

• Found funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research

PROCEDURE AND RECRUITMENT

• Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford

University psychology building into a mock prison

• No windows or clocks in the “prison”
• Solitary confinement cell for prisoners who 'misbehaved'.
• Enlisted help of ex-cons and correctional officers for

realism

• He advertised for students to play the roles of prisoners

and guards for a fortnight. More than 70 applicants answered the ad

• Applicants were given diagnostic interviews and

personality tests to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history

• f crime or drug abuse
• The study comprised 24 male college students who were

paid $15 per day to take part in the experiment

PRISONERS AND GUARDS

• Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard
• 9 guards, 9 prisoners, 6 reserves
• The guards worked in sets of 3 (being replaced after an 8 hour shift), and the

prisoners were housed 3 to a room.

• Guards wore khaki, had billy club, whistle, mirrored sunglasses
• Zimbardo encouraged the guards to think of themselves as actual guards in

a real prison.

DAY 1 – THE ARRESTS

DAY 1

• Palo Alto police officers arrived at the prisoners’ homes
• Formally booked and charged
• Taken to Palo Alto Police Station for formal booking
• Blindfolded, driven to “Stanford County Jail”
• Stripped naked, deloused, had all their personal

possessions removed and locked away

• Were given prison clothes and bedding
• Issued a uniform, and referred to by their number only.
• No incidents – participants were still getting used to

roles

DAY 2 – THE REBELLION

DAY 2

• First count was at 2:30AM
• Guards initially not sure how to assert authority, prisoners still trying to assert

independence

• The prisoners removed their stocking caps, ripped off their numbers, and

barricaded themselves inside the cells

• Morning shift guards called for backup, night shift stayed on-duty
• Guards sprayed cells with fire extinguisher
• Stripped prisoners naked, removed cells from bed
• Put riot leaders in solitary confinement, harassment begins

DAY 2

• Idea of using psychological tactics rather than physical
• Guards set up “special privileges” cell for good behaving prisoners
• 3 prisoners got uniforms, bed back, received special food
• Meant to break the solidarity among prisoners
• Guards switched prisoners in and out of privilege cell
• This confused the prisoners
• Riot ringleaders thought some prisoners must be informers
• Guards began exercising more power throughout the day

PRISONER 8612

• Less than 36 hours into the experiment, Prisoner #8612 began suffering from

acute emotional disturbance, disorganized thinking, uncontrollable crying, and rage.

• Experimenters thought it was a con
• Began to act “crazy”
• Zimbardo released him from the study

DAY 3 – FAMILY DAY AND THE GREAT ESCAPE

DAY 3

• The next day, the researchers held a family visiting hour for the prisoners
• Prison was cleaned up, floors polished
• Prisoners were bathed, fed a full dinner
• Parents had to register, wait a half hour
• Visits had to be supervised, only lasted 10 minutes
• Parents more or less fell into the experiment as well

THE ESCAPE PLOT

• Rumors were that prisoner 8612 was

returning with friends to “break out” other prisoners

• After the family visit, prison was dismantled,

prisoners chained together, black-bagged, transferred to 5th floor storage room

• Zimbardo sat in basement waiting
• Surprise guest from colleague and former

roommate, Gordon Bower

• The escape rumor turned out to be only a

rumor

• No data was collected on this day
• Guards upped their harassment as

retribution

DAY 4 – MEETING WITH THE PRIEST

DAY 4

• A Catholic priest (and former prison

chaplain) was invited in for counseling

• Individually met with each prisoner,

half of whom identified by prison number

• Offered legal advice rather than any

helpful counseling

• Interaction further blurred the line

between role-play and reality

PRISONER 819

• Didn’t want to meet with priest, would rather meet with doctor
• Reluctantly met with the priest, broke down crying
• Went to a rest room next to prison yard
• Guards had prisoners chant at prisoner 819, causing him to cry more
• Zimbardo took prisoner 819 home
• The rest of the day concluded without much incident

DAY 5 – PAROLE HEARINGS

DAY 5

• Those who thought they were eligible were able to have parole hearings
• Board was made up of psychology department secretaries, graduate

students, and one of the prison consultants

• Most said they would forfeit their money in exchange for freedom
• Prisoners were ordered back to their cells while the board “considered” the

decision

• Prison consultant got too into character, later reminded him of his own

parole board officer

DAY 6 – END OF EXPERIMENT

DAY 6

• The night before, parents had called Zimbardo about legal counseling, as

per requested by the priest

• Zimbardo arranged for a lawyer to come in with a set of legal questions
• It soon became clear that the prisoners fully believed they were completely

powerless

• Zimbardo ended the study, set up sessions between the guards, then the

prisoners, and then everyone involved in the experiment

AFTERMATH

TYPES OF GUARDS

• 3 types of guards
• Tough but fair guards who followed prison rules.
• “Good guys" who did little favors for the prisoners and never punished them.
• About a third of the guards were hostile, arbitrary, and inventive in their forms
• f prisoner humiliation.

PRISONERS COPING STYLES

• Some prisoners rebelled or fought with the guards
• Four prisoners reacted by breaking down emotionally as a way to escape

the situation.

• One prisoner developed a psychosomatic rash over his entire body
• Others tried to cope by being good prisoners, doing everything the guards

wanted them to do.

PRISONER 416

• Entered the study when one prisoner was released
• Never had the opportunity to “warm up” to the experiment
• Went on hunger strike over the poor treatment
• Was despised by other prisoners due to his lack of conformity
• Subjected to more-scrutinized harassment, placed in solitary confinement

ABU GHRAIB PRISON

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS

• What steps should Zimbardo have taken to prevent the experiment from

spiraling out of control?

• Do the results from this experiment outweigh the ethical problems?
• Is the Abu Ghraib torture a result from rogue individuals, or simply

compliance to orders?