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Name: Stanford Prison Experiment – AP Statistics Extra Credit

After watching the movie, you will need to type up answers to the following questions. To receive full credit, you cannot give one line answers. This assignment can add up to 20 pts on a test grade in term 4.

1. Would you rather be a guard or prisoner?

Why?

2. Why do you think this experiment got approved by the Review Board at Stanford?

3. Was there anything in this experiment that you think was ethical?

4. What would you change, if anything to make sure that this experiment remained ethical?

5. What are the results of this study?

6. Can the results of this study be applied only to the prison system or to an individual’s behavior as well?

7. What do you think the Stanford Prison Experiment really showed?

Read the following excerpt from an article about the Stanford Prison Experiment and then answer the following questions.

If the Stanford Prison Experiment had simulated a less brutal environment, would the prisoners and guards have acted differently? In December, 2001, two psychologists, Stephen Reicher and Alexander Haslam, tried to find out. They worked with the documentaries unit of the BBC to partially recreate Zimbardo’s setup over the course of an eight-day experiment. Their guards also had uniforms, and were given latitude to dole out rewards and punishments; their prisoners were placed in three-person cells that followed the layout of the Stanford County Jail almost exactly. The main difference was that, in this prison, the preset expectations were gone. The guards were asked to come up with rules prior to the prisoners’ arrival, and were told only to make the prison run smoothly. (The BBC Prison Study, as it came to be called, differed from the Stanford experiment in a few other ways, including prisoner dress; for a while, moreover, the prisoners were told that they could become guards through good behavior, although, on the third day, that offer was revoked, and the roles were made permanent.)

Within the first few days of the BBC study, it became clear that the guards weren’t cohering as a group. “Several guards were wary of assuming and exerting their authority,” the researchers wrote. The prisoners, on the other hand, developed a collective identity. In a change from the Stanford study, the psychologists asked each participant to complete a daily survey that measured the degree to which he felt solidarity with his group; it showed that, as the guards grew further apart, the prisoners were growing closer together. On the fourth day, three cellmates decided to test their luck. At lunchtime, one threw his plate down and demanded better food, another asked to smoke, and the third asked for medical attention for a blister on his foot. The guards became disorganized; one even offered the smoker a cigarette. Reicher and Haslam reported that, after the prisoners returned to their cells, they “literally danced with joy.” (“That was fucking sweet,” one prisoner remarked.) Soon, more prisoners began to challenge the guards. They acted out during roll call, complained about the food, and talked back. At the end of the sixth day, the three insubordinate cellmates broke out and occupied the guards’ quarters. “At this point,” the researchers wrote, “the guards’ regime was seen by all to be unworkable and at an end.”

8. Can the results of this study (the BBC study) be applied only about the prison system or to an individual’s behavior as well?

9. How does this study compare to the Stanford Prison Experiment? Is the BBC study ethical? Explain.

10. After reading about the BBC study, what do you think the Stanford Prison Experiment really showed?

11. Why are the Stanford Prison Experiment and its results still relevant today? Are there any recent / current events that bring this experiment or its results to mind? (you may have to do some research here – please site any sources)

The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment, by Maria Konnikova, June 12, 2015

, 5/11/16

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