| What is the aim? | To investigate what happens to 'non-average' people were assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison environment. |
| How many male respondents were there? | 22, 'normal healthy males' |
| How much money were they payed a day? | $15 |
| How were their roles allocated and what were they to expect? | They were randomly allocated roles (2 groups, prison guards and prisoner)
If you were prisoner, expect loss of basic civil rights, especially freedom. |
| What were the guards allowed to do after each 'shift' | They were allowed to go home |
| What were the participants told? | They would be under constant surveillance |
| What were the guards told a day before the prisoners' arrived? ( and given) | Given military style uniform and was told not to use physical punishment and that the purpose to observe the prisoners behavior. |
| What happened to the prisoners on their first day? | They were arrested unexpectedly and taken to real police station.
They were stripped, deloused and given an ID pin and a plain uniform and a chain on one ankle, no undergarments |
| What happened after the prisoners arrest? and what happened with the surveillance? | They were only referred to by their ID number
3 supervised toilet visits, 3 line counts, 3 meals and scheduled workouts and exercise each day |
| What were the results with the small interactions with the prisoners and guards? | They tended to be hostile and if they were common they tended to be focused on prison life. |
| Difference between guards? | Some were serious and not hostile unlike others. |
| What did the prisoners do with the guards actions and what happened to 4 of them? (prisoners) | excepted the oppression
4 of the prisoners were realesed early due to extreme emotional reactions (cry, depression, anxiety and rage )
one even developed a psychosomatic rash |
| What happened on day 5 of the experiment? | 5 prisoners at a 'parole' meeting were willing to give up the $15 to get out the prison |
| What happened on day 6? | The experiment was terminated, 8 days earlier than expected. |
| What could be one explanation to the participants reactions? | They were so extreme due to conformity, through the identification of their social role. The guards had gained power over the prisoners but the prisoners became compliant and dependent. |
| Another explanation to the participants reactions? | The use of uniforms contributed to the deindividualisation of the guards, a loss of personal identity and becoming so immersed in their social role. |
| A weakness? | All male collage students from Stanford uni, gender basis |
| A strength | Recordings show that, most of the time the prisoners were talking about prison life, behavior was real in response. |
| A weakness? | 5 of the participants had to get removed from the experiment due to the fact that they were emotionally distressed. And they had to stop 5 days beforehand because it was getting out of control. There was no protection from harm. |
| An improvement to be made? | Have different genders, not just male, can be applied to a wider target population. |
| An improvement to be made? | Make sure that was okay, protection from harm |
| A strength ? | High internal validity due to ppts selected being phsyciallt stable and then radomly allocated for social role.
Shows that the soical role is what made them act differenly due to the pressure of situation
Zimbardo's conclusion would be about the environment rather than ppts emotional or physical instablilty |
| A strength? | High internal validity form ppts reactions. Evidnece shows that the situation was real to them, qualitative data shows the 90% of ppts conovs were abt prison life.
Prisoner 416 though that it was run by the govermnet.
Less likely to display demand chararcteristics |
| A weakness? | Low ethics of the experiment, no protection from harm. Zimbardo being in a dual role of the study, eg ppt wanted to leave and Zimbardo didn't let him as his role of supvisor. Worried about running the prison rather than researcher responsibility. |
| A weakness? | Banuazizi and Mohavedi said that ppts were acting and they performances were sterotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to act.
Eg: one of the guards said he based his character off 'cool hand luke'
Lower the validity of the results due it could be possible that they were only acting |
