The Stanford Prison Experiment, Essay Example

If you were a prisoner, would you have been able to endure the experience? What would you have done differently than those subjects did? If you were imprisoned in a “real” prison for five years or more, could you take it?

Given the mindset that all is but an experiment, I would have stood for myself and created a mental shield that could keep me up my feet and realize that the whole thing was nothing but a show. Such approach to the matter would keep me focused on myself and the fact that everything is going to end soon. However, if it was a real prison and the guards acted as cruel as they did in the experiment, I might develop depression during the early stages. However, if I keep the same mindset that ‘all these is going to end’ then perhaps I would be able to take the challenge of being imprisoned for five years.

What factors would lead prisoners to attribute guard brutality to the guards’ disposition or character, rather than to the situation?

As noted in the study, guards and the responsibilities have already been stereotyped. They are expected to take on a particular role and they are given the authority to do so. Their perception on such authority and power given in their hands to control the lives of the prisoners could actually drive them into becoming brutal. Being accustomed to such an environment could drive them into believing that brutality is nothing but a part of the job.

Do you think that kids from an urban working class environment would have broken down emotionally in the same way as did our middle-class prisoners? Why? What about women?

No, urban working class environment already posses the same brutality outside of the prison homes; relatively, being subjected to such an experiment would be nothing but a regular day to them. On the other hand, women might have reacted differently. While depression is an option, women may tend to defend themselves, to stand up, create a group of their own in the prison homes that would go against the rules or at least defy the way they are treated. Relatively, this is assumed because of the way women behave when they are being oppressed and specifically tormented in the society with criticisms and hurtful words.

After the study, how do you think the prisoners and guards felt when they saw each other in the same civilian clothes again and saw their prison reconverted to a basement laboratory hallway?

It would take time before they could see each other again in the same way. Given the brutality and the depression that the prisoners experienced, they may not be able to get over the situation that easily. Nevertheless, given the time, realizing that they are but mere ‘casts’ of the ‘play’ that the experiment is dependent upon could actually drive them to forgive and accept each other as a person again.

Was it ethical to do this study? Was it right to trade the suffering experienced by participants for the knowledge gained by the research?

No, in social research, there is always the margin of limitation especially when it comes to risking the mental or physical health of the participants. Besides, the money that the participants were to receive already tinted the study’s results. The knowledge that was gained from such an experiment could not be considered valid as there were several margins of errors that were implicated instead of eliminated during the process of gaining the needed data for analysis.

If you were the experimenter in charge, would you have done this study? Would you have terminated it earlier? Would you have conducted a follow-up study?

No, I would have conducted the study on real prison homes. Observing how the people in the area behaved towards each other, getting interviews and cross referencing the results from one prison home to another would have yielded better information that could provide a more actual picture of what happens inside and what elements particularly influence the behavior and perception of prisoners and guards towards each other.