Stanford Jail Experiment Flashcards
What was the aim of the study?
To find out whether the situation or the disposition of the individuals make prison brutal.
Researchers predicted that allocation to the role of prisoner or guard would discrete the participants behaviour and NOT their personality.
How many people responded to the advert in the local newspaper?
75 potential participants responded.
How were the participants chosen from the 75 people who replied?
The people who responded completed questionnaires and were interviewed about their physical and mental health.
Those who were selected were judged to be stable, mature and the least involved in antisocial behaviour.
How many people were chosen from the original 75 participants?
24
What were the guards wearing?
Guards wore khaki shirts and trousers, carried a whistle and night stick and wore reflective glasses.
What were the guards told to do?
Guards were told to maintain a reasonable degree of order so that the prison could function effectively, not to let prisoners escape, and not to use physical punishment.
How were the guards shifts arranged?q
They worked 3 man, 8 hour shifts and went home when not on duty.
What did the prisoners wear?
Prisoners wore lose fitting smocks, with their ID number on the back and front, this made them adopt ‘female’ posture and made them feel emasculated. They had a light chain and lock around 1 ankle (oppression and restriction), wore rubber sandals and a stocking over their hair (a symbol of deindividuation)
What were the prisoners called?
They were called by their number only?
How were the ‘prisoners’ transported to the ‘prison’?
They were arrested at home, handcuffed and read their rights then taken to the police station. They were blindfolded and taken to the mock prison.
After how many days was the study stopped?
6 days (it was due to last 2 weeks)
Why was the study stopped?
Due to the cruelty and verbal abuse of the guards and some of the prisoners suffering from high levels of anxiety.
How many participants were released early?
5 were released early due to their psychological distress.
What about the experiment suggested individual differences?
Not all the guards behaved in a cruel way and not all prisoners suffered - some were passionless and did as they were told.
One explanation of behaviour?
Social roles (situational) influence behaviour of guards - normal young men behaved brutally to fit in with their role as a guard.
This is described as pathology of power.
The uniforms and roles given led to deindividuation, where they had to take less responsibility for their actions
