My Views on the Stanford Prison Experiment.
I was mainly disgusted by this research experiment;
stripping them naked was uncalled for as it is, although I know this happens in
some prisons even today. I know the prisoners (in real life) have done awful
things to be put in prison in the first place, but is no reason to treat them like vermin either.
I do not think prisoners nowadays deserve internet access, cable TV, things
like that; but beating them, withholding food, putting them in physical danger
health wise, is not ok to me.
Shooting freezing g
cold carbon dioxide at the “prisoners” was taking things too far, at men they
had half naked, in a cold basement. Why not just stab them in the arms with vials
of live pneumonia and kill them?
Not allowing the “prisoners” to wash, eat in some cases, or
use basic hygiene, is a horrible thing to do to some people who were kind
enough to volunteer for this experiment.
They could have just put them in a jumpsuit and stuck them
in a cell, no tv or books, fed them through a hole in the door, and let them
out into the hallway they used as a “yard” in the school basement once a day
for a half hour, and see what happened to their state of mind that way. Not put
them in physical danger from the men they designated as prison guards, who
after a few days let the power go to their head.
When Dr. Zimbardo’s Yale alum came to visit and asked him
what the independent variable was- when Dr. Zimbardo got angry, he should have
seen that as a problem and cancelled the study right away, as he was getting
too deeply involved, instead of putting the lives of normal innocent men at
more of a risk. I feel he was a selfish individual and should have been jailed
for putting American citizens at risk, and charged with assault. He may not
have been the person assaulting the “prisoners”, but he was ultimately responsible.
In real life, it sickens me that this kind of behavior
happens in prisons all around the country. Some people are in prison for check
fraud, and small things like that. Why do they deserve to be treated this way
by these prison guards on a power trip? Some guards nowadays, you see them beating
and humiliating the prisoners; I believe when it gets to that point, the guards
should be fired and arrested for assault as well.
They could have used a less invasive (and kept others out of
potential harm) way of researching, like the use of surveys, or Ethnography: with
surveys, they could have sent actual paper surveys to prisoners out on parole,
to ask how they were treated, and how life was. If they really wanted an
experience, Dr. Zimbardo could have used a form of Ethnography, and had himself
put into a real prison, the whole nine yards, for a week, and then he would
have had plenty to write about. A form of research like that could never be
performed today, almost 40 years later, due to the unethical nature of the
study.
www.prisonexp.org/
www.prisonexp.org/
