Stanford Perison

Bruce Sedlacek

Sarah Hastings

English 161

3 November 2013

Synthesis Rough Draft

On a summer day in August 1971, Palo Alto City Police swept through the town, making a mess arrest of college students, for armed robbery and burglary. After booking, the suspect was blindfolded and placed in a holding cell to wonder his fate, and ponder what he had done to get himself in this mess. What he did was answer an ad by Dr. Philip Zimbardo a psychologist at Stanford University, who was conducting a simulated study of psychological effects, of imprisonment. This experiment was to investigate how readily; people would conform to a role given to them, using every day middle-class college students. The study also brought up interesting arguments, in brutality among American prison systems. With the study to be concluded in a two week time frame, it was cut short, when researchers realized participants were not role-playing, and to prevent any physical and psychological harm from occurring. This study also brought up whether this type of experiment was ethical and did any ethical codes violations occur.

Dr. Zimbardo “In order to better understand the psychology of imprisonment which we were trying to simulate in our study, we called upon the services of experienced consultants. Foremost among them was Carlo Prescott, an ex-con who had served nearly seventeen years in San Quentin, Soledad, Folsom and other prisons. He made us aware of what it was like to be a prisoner. He also introduced us to a number of other ex-cons as well as correctional personnel” (Zimbardo 1). He helped them and a team of researchers and undergrads, transform the basement of the psychology department building into the Stanford County jail.

Zimbardo after conducting psychological normality screening chose 21 male college students out of over 75 that volunteered, to take part in the experiment. “Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard in a simulated prison...