Stanford Prison Experiment

The police pretending to arrest many volunteer individuals, only to be part of an experiment. The police procedures during arrest lead people feeling confused, fearful, and dehumanized. As soon as the individual entered the experiment building. They started to treat them like actual prisoners. The volunteer guard started yelling and treat them like inhuman. The guard forced them to take their clothes off and made them were prisoners' uniform. Additionally, they lock on prisoner holding cells and beating them up. Unfortunately, the effect of those abuses leads to those individuals to lose their pride, self-confidence, and independence.

Even though I like the idea of these experience to study human behavior when dealing with stress, but I would not take it that seriously as those guards did. I do understand putting them under stress is part of the study, but they take it to far. In my opinion, just putting people behind the bar is already stressful so we do not want to add more to it. In my heart I know that I would have been a better guard, however, I am not sure until I would have been in those mean guard shoes. As they always say power change people.

The good guard did not prevent the bad guard of being aggressive to the individual because they did not want to intervene with their executive. From my point of view, the good guard did not want to be involved because they believed everyone was doing their job and follow orders. Therefore, by trying to stop the bad guard would look like they disobeyed their employer and that could get them to get fired.

If I were a prisoner, I would not be able to endure that terrible experience. First, I would have never volunteered myself for that experiment because I love my independence and freedom way too much. In fact, if I were one of those people, I would forget that was just an experiment and I would fight back. If I were in an actual prison for five years, I would go crazy or even not make it the whole five years.

The prisoners tried to work within the arbitrary prison system to effect a change in it because of the abuse they have been endured. The prisoners thought that if they could get help from the inside it would have been in effect right away. Changing the system through outside help would have been a long process. Also, help from outside would draw too much attention and that could have caused a huge drama in our society. In fact, if people from the outside found the truth on how they were treated this could have led to rood protest and endangered their neighborhood.

There were several factors that lead prisoners to identify the mean guard versus the good ones. The mean guard maltreated the prisoners and humiliated them. Also, the prisoners were stripped of their clothes among other people and they were forced to walk around naked. Therefore, the bad guard action allowed the prisoners to identify them as soon as they entered the experiment building.

According to the Stanford prison study, the reality in a prison setting is different from the free world. In prison the authority control everything prisoners do. In fact, authority in charge of the prisoners' lives. The superior tells them when to take a shower when to go to bed. Therefore, prisoners basically lost their freedom. Additionally, in prison people feel like the outsider because the place does not feel like home and prisoners must share their place with a lot of strangers.

In my opinion, I believe that everyone has their own identity. In fact, identity can include a person's country, a group they belong to or even their personality. In general, Identity is the unique personality an individual has. Additionally, identity gives other a sense on how we behave among each other. Unfortunately, we see how the prisoner's personality change when being maltreated by the guards.

From my experience, I do believe that people from different class tend to behave differently. Therefore, I do not believe that the working class would have broken down emotionally in the same way as did the middle-class prisoners. I think the working class has been too much in their personal life that their family prepared them for any difficulty they are encounter in life. For example, the working class grows up in a bad neighborhood where they must fight to survive. As of for women I think they would have been more emotional since many women are so sensitive and very emotional.

I think the prisoners and the guards would feel blizzard around each other. For instance, the prisoners would feel hatred toward the guard because they treated them like an animal. Therefore, seeing or hearing the guards ?voice would trigger many bad memories for the prisoners. On the other hand, the guard would feel ashamed when facing those prisoners knowing that they could have to treat them way much better than they did.

There are several factors that could affect the psychological prisons that we create for ourselves and others. Obviously, in our society, there is the law that everyone must follow. Therefore, when we disobey the law there is a price to pay which is often going to prison. In prison, individual lost their identity and lost their freedom completely. In fact, the guard told prisoners when to take a shower, what time to go to bed or even what time to wake up. The illusion of prison created in marriages where one spouse becomes a guard and the other becomes prisoners would be insane. For example, if the ones playing guard becomes aggressive toward the other that would jeopardize their wedding and their friendship.

The illusion of prison created in marriages where one spouse becomes a guard and the other becomes prisoners would be a nightmare. The one playing guard would experience a sense of controlled over the other. However, the one playing the prisoner would feel powerless, frustrated and dehumanized. Obviously, the ones playing guard would become hostile toward the other which would jeopardize their wedding and their friendship

I believe the idea of this study was ethical. I adored the knowledge gained by those researchers. However, I objected the brutality of those bad guard toward the volunteer individual. In my opinion, I do not believe it was a fair trade, knowledge for suffering like that could have led those victims to psychological problems. Additionally, it could cause a huge problem in our society which the experimenters did not want. So, I am so glad that the experimenters stop the experiment due to the suffering and abuse that those victims were endured.

After watching the video and research on this assignment I realized that both experiments were done for the same reason which is knowledge. Both parties wanted to know how humans behave under pressure. These studies were horrible, but they teach us a good lesson. For example, we learn that people can let power control them and treat other any kind of way. Additionally, we learn that human would fight back when under too much pressure.

If I were an experimenter in charge, I would have done this study because I believe knowledge is power. However, the first thing I would have done was training both parties the guard and the prisoners. I remember when I was little, I used to be in my church play and the nuns would have trained us and make us practice before we went on stage. I would have terminated this study on the first day because any human deserves to treat that way. I would have performed another study, but I would train those guards and made sure they followed they were able to follow rules before putting to play.

As seen in the study, treating the prisoners like an animal did not go well. Unfortunately, it brought more angered and fired among both parties. In our society, we can change our real institution by treating the prisoners with respect and dignity. Therefore, we will have safer prison facilities, so we can allow those individuals to learn from their mistake and teach them how to stay away from prison.

After analyzing the Stanford prison experiment, the reality how they treat human being does not change. Even though is not a real prison the psychologic effects of those guards, mistreating those prisoners can cause mental illness. I would recommend to change the correctional system by let the prisoners to spend more time in the yard of the prison to interact with others that can prevent mental disorders.

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