...shaving the heads of prisoners or members of the military. What transformations take place when people go through this experience? 02. What are the effects of living in an environment with no clocks, no view of the outside world, and minimal sensory stimulation? 03. Compare the reactions of the visitors to the reactions of civilians in encounters with the police or other authorities. 04. What factors would lead prisoners to attribute guard brutality to the their disposition or character, rather than to the situation? 05. How and why did #8612, #819, and #416 break down emotionally? Do you think young adults from an urban class environment would have reacted in similar fashion as middle-class prisoners? Why or why not? Do you think women would have broken down emotionally in the same way as the middle-class prisoners? Why or why not? 06. What prevented “good” from objecting to the orders from the “bad” guards? 07. What were the dangers of the principal investigator assuming the role of prison superintendent? the former convict as head of the Parole Board? 08. Explain why it was and why it was not ethical to conduct this study. Was it worth to trade the suffering experienced by participants for the knowledge gained by the research? 09. In the encounter sessions, all the prisoners were happy the experiment was over, but most of the guards were upset that the study was terminated prematurely. Why do you think the guards reacted this way? 10. How do you think the prisoners and guards felt...
Words: 3641 - Pages: 15
...Stanford Prison Experiment by Saul McLeod published 2008 Aim: To investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life. Zimbardo (1973) was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards or had more to do with the prison environment. Procedure: Zimbardo used a lab experiment to study conformity. To study the roles people play in prison situations, Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison. He advertised for students to play the roles of prisoners and guards for a fortnight. 21 male college students (chosen from 75 volunteers) were screened for psychological normality and paid $15 per day to take part in the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard in a simulated prison environment. The prison simulation was kept as “real life” as possible. Prisoners were arrested at their own homes, without warning, and taken to the local police station. Guards were also issued a khaki uniform, together with whistles, handcuffs and dark glasses, to make eye contact with prisoners impossible. No physical violence was permitted. Zimbardo observed the behavior of the prisoners and guards. Here they were treated like every other criminal. They were fingerprinted, photographed and ‘booked’. Then they were blindfolded...
Words: 1212 - Pages: 5
...psychological consequences of stripping, delousing, and shaving the heads of prisoners or members of the military. What transformations take place when people go through an experience like this? * I believe that when people go through this experiences they feel less than others. In prison they were treated as dirty people and real prisoners when really wasn’t. 3.At first push-ups were not a very aversive form of punishment, but they became more so as the study wore on. Why the change? * I think it was because the guards wanted to show their supremacy and keep afraid the prisoners by increasing the push-ups. And they also want to be respected by the prisoners and avoid future conflicts with them. 4. How do you think you would have behaved if you were a prisoner in this situation? Would you have rejected these privileges in order to maintain prisoner solidarity? * I think I would take the privileges because it is already a tough life in prison, so why not have the attitude that I should accept what I can get, even if I have to lie to get there. 5. Most prisoners believed that the subjects selected to be guards were chosen because they were bigger than those who were made prisoners, but actually, there was no difference in the average height of the two groups. What do you think caused this misperception? * I think this mis perception was caused by a self- fulfilling prophecy. The prisoners...
Words: 838 - Pages: 4
...power resulting in deindividualized and dehumanized victims. Such as Elie Wiesel was not just prisoner A-7713, he was a human being as were others put into concentration camps and many who have been oppressed and dehumanized. In Philip Zimbardo’s experiment the guards dehumanized and deindividualized the prisoners (Zimbardo). In Night the prisoners were dehumanized when Dr. Mengele made them...
Words: 1993 - Pages: 8
...this role to aid us in our decisions. Professor of psychology Philip K. Zimbardo finds that people are obedient in accepting roles assigned by others. Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment” discusses male college students placed in a prison experiment and assigned the role of either “prisoner” of “guard.” Zimbardo claims to have “sought to understand more about the process by which people called ‘prisoners’ lose their liberty, civil rights, independence and privacy, while those called ‘guards’ gain social power by accepting the responsibility for controlling and managing the lives of their dependent charges” (365). Zimbardo concludes that the roles of guard and prisoner can be seen in many realms of life. Zimbardo suggests that sexism, racism, and shyness are, for many people, prisons of the mind. Furthermore, Zimbardo feels that marriage can be described as a prison: The physical institution of prison is but a concrete and steel metaphor for the existence of more pervasive, albeit less obvious, prisons of the mind that all of us daily create, populate and perpetuate ... The social convention of marriage ... becomes for many a state of imprisonment in which one partner agrees to be prisoner or guard, forcing or allowing the other to play the reciprocal role—invariably without...
Words: 1741 - Pages: 7
...The Stanford Prison Experiment was created to replicate what a prison was like. They took the basement of their psychology building to create a prison setting. The experiment was suppose to last about two weeks, but the experiment was cut short because of how the prisoners and guards felt mentally. The goal of the experiment was to study the behavioral and psychological consequences of becoming a prisoner or guard. There was applications for men to apply to be in this simulation. Over 70 people applied to make $15 a day for two weeks. The guards met before the process to discuss what is going on and what is expected of them. After everyone was ready, the experiment could finally get started. The first step in the experiment was to get the...
Words: 724 - Pages: 3
...of the particular conflict.”. In this extended response, I will attempt to explore the ideas behind this statement, while looking into the varying experiences of prisoners during the second world war. When looking into the treatment of soldiers during war time, it is important to have an understanding of the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention is essentially a just agreement to ensure safety of those caught in the crossfire of war. The idea for the Geneva convention came about in 1859 due to Henry Dunant. He was visiting Italy for business, and witnessed an example of neglect as a direct result of the Battle of Solferino. “[He]...
Words: 1193 - Pages: 5
...He also was showing signs of an early descent into depression. After a few days, he was checked on and went through another round of psychological testing, which showed his mental state had returned to normal. Before he was released, he said to the other prisoners during the next count, “You can’t leave. You can’t quit.” These outbursts sent a chill into the prisoners and reinforced the feeling of truly being imprisoned. Over the next few days three more people had to be sent home due to emotional...
Words: 872 - Pages: 4
...of the Cave is a story about the unseen truth of the outside world. The story takes place underground in a cave where prisoners are forced to watch a show that they believe is what life only consists of. There is a blazing fire set back behind them and a wall where puppets are displayed so that it casts images on the wall in front of the prisoners. Their heads are chained so that the only thing that they are able to see is what is being projected on the wall. For the prisoners, this is all that they know about life and all they have ever known. A prisoner later escapes and finds his way out of the cave and into a world that he did not believe existed. He was blinded not only by the light but blinded from what he missed out on for so long. He was so happy of what he has seen but discouraged at the same time of what the cave has made him believe for such a long period. He traveled back to the cave to tell the others of such a beautiful place above them, but to his dismay, the prisoner’s scolded him and didn’t believe a word he said. For the prisoners, the cave was all they knew and they were angry that someone would try and tell them otherwise. The prisoners didn’t want to believe they were being hidden from the truth. Plato used many metaphors in the story, For instance, I believe that the cave is used to represent the universe because for the prisoners, that is the extent of what they know is out there. The fire causes the illusions we blind ourselves with. The shadows...
Words: 1086 - Pages: 5
...States Prison Introduction This research paper is on the history of the prison in America. How it came to be in its present state? Things I will be writing about in this paper are the early history of the prison history in England. I will be talking about early American prisons, the goal of rehabilitation, prison labor, changes in the prison system, rehab programs, population, housing and prison organization we will hit briefly on all those aspects of the history of prisons. The reasoning behind this paper is because many people do not know why prison are the way they are now. In order to know why we have prisons the way we have them today you have to know where they came from. The main findings from my paper are from the internet. Articles that I read for this are Towards a Fair and Balanced Assessment of Supermax Prisons by Daniel P. Mears and Jamie Watson. The textbook Twelfth Edition Introduction to Criminal Justice Author Larry Siegel Chapter 16. Prison Reform in Pennsylvania by Norman Johnston P.H.D Board member Emeritus of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Wikipedia. The short History of Prison by the Howard League for Penal Reform. These articles helped me to understand how we have the prison system today. I found that the country has been through many phases and schools of thought on how to punish and house prisoners. The prisons went from just a holding place for people until they were sentenced. To the way things are today being time as the punishment...
Words: 1951 - Pages: 8
...television shows. INTRODUCTION I. If you disobey the rules of society, they send you to prison; if you disobey the rules of the prison, they send you to Alcatraz. II. Alcatraz has been a popular social topic because of the mystery that surrounds it and the stories of mistreatment and escape attempts exaggerated in movies and television shows. III. Alcatraz served as the federal government’s response to post-prohibition America. Both the institution and the men confined within its walls are a part of this era. The most famous inmate being, Al Capone and others like George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz”. A. First, I will talk about the penitentiary opening where difficult prisoners from other institutions would be transferred to Alcatraz, also known as “The Rock”. B. Then, I will discuss life on the island and as an inmate in the prison. C. And last, I will discuss the popular culture of Alcatraz; including some failed escape attempts before the closing of the prison. BODY I. First, I will talk about the penitentiary opening where difficult prisoners from other institutions would be transferred to Alcatraz. A. Alcatraz opened in 1934, as a wave of gangsterism and violence was sweeping the country. Alcatraz had served as an army prison in years prior, and its remote site proved to be an ideal location. After thorough renovation of the prison, they began to ship prisoners to the island. B. Most prisoners were sent to Alcatraz that could...
Words: 1091 - Pages: 5
...Prisoner Rights Robert Bregante CJS230 April 17, 2011 Michael Lew Prisoner Rights A major part of the evolution within the prison system is prisoner rights. Even though citizens loose many of their rights once committing a felony, there are still rights afforded to those individuals incarcerated. Prisoner rights are important to maintaining balance within the prison system. They give the prisoners a voice, which prevents prison officials from abusing their power. Prisoner rights are necessary to maintaining a particular level of care for inmates, for it forces the correctional staff to be more hands on in their approach. This way they may also receive the treatment necessary for proper rehabilitation, as well as the tools for reintegration into society. It seems prisoner rights have played an essential role in the evolution of the prison system; it has had both positive and negative effects on inmates, and when looking at the key elements in obtaining those rights it is important to recognize the 8th amendment and section 1983 of civil rights litigation. Rights for prisoners can be a great benefit to the individual inmate should they choose to take advantage of them. While in the past, the system may have worked against inmates wanting to have their issues heard and a fair review of their case, the present era offers various courses of legal action for inmates to take. Prisoners are now able to speak out against cruel and unusual punishment. They can file lawsuits...
Words: 1245 - Pages: 5
...the most well-known Nazi camp during World War II was Auschwitz. Auschwitz was a network of German Nazi concentration camps in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II....
Words: 776 - Pages: 4
...experiment was conducted in 1971, by a group of social psychologists. The head researcher was Phillip Zimbardo. b) It was meant to determine the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. c) The researchers chose all college kids to fit the roles. d) The researchers turned the basement of the Stanford psychology department into a mock prison 2) Beginning of Experiment a) The “prisoners” were all actually arrested and taken down to a local police station to be booked, finger printed, and processed. They all were also deloused. i) All of the prisoners personal belongings were confiscated and they were only allowed to wear a simple smock. ii) The effect of this was to dehumanize the prisoners. b) The guards all wore a khaki uniform, reflective sunglasses, and carried a police baton i) The guards were given no instructions other than defend the prison and keep the prisoners in line. ii) The guards were told to think for themselves and act as real prison guards, but to not physically harm the prisoners. 3) During the Experiment a) The prisoners and guards all quickly fell into their respective roles. i) The guards started becoming brutal and sadistic towards the prisoners. (1) The guards insulted the prisoners and forced them to do menial labor. (2) The guards also locked misbehaving prisoners into a small closet, which they deemed as solitary confinement. ii) The prisoners became depressed and felt completely powerless. (1) The prisoners relied on...
Words: 559 - Pages: 3
...what the outside world was like or even what a person looked like. Just monstrous shadows projected on the wall in front of you. The prisoners in Plato’s story were born in a cave and chained in a way they only knew the wall in front of them. In the allegory of the cave the prisoners were not allowed to look at anything but the wall. They were chained with a “bridge” behind them. I refer to it as a bridge because people walked across it carrying their water or camels. I used the youtube video: “The Cave: An adaption of Plato’s Allegory in Clay” as a reference. It helped me understand the story more in depth but yet there was a lot more to tell through the text “Plato, The Allegory of the Cave.” I believe that my favorite sentence from the article I chose would have to be “…and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.” (Kreis, 2000) Once I read this I could see a picture in my head. I felt that I was trapped in the chains and was restricted to just the wall. Plato’s story shows me to respect life. Enjoy what God gave you instead of taking advantage of it. The prisoners were not allowed to see the outside world. They didn’t know what the sky looked like or what a voice sounded like. I chose this application of the story because reading different versions I kept hearing words of my pastor in my head. What if I lived that life? Would I be happy? I’m sure that...
Words: 803 - Pages: 4
