STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

By: Mimi Harvill, KJ Eberle, Jesse Palmer, & David Nettles

AGENDA

• Describe the experiment

• Examine the significance of cultural diversity in relation to the experiment.

• Summarize ethnic disparity and discrimination within corrections.

(flickr image 13)

THE EXPERIMENT

Dr. Philip ZimbardoUniversity of Stanford Psychology

Professor

• 9 guards• 9 prisoners• 1 prison superintendent• Assistance from local police (Palo Alto)

• The experiment was supposed to last for 14 days but was curtailed to only 6 days due to “prisoner distress.”

The guards became overbearing and the experiment researcher became overly involved.

THE EXPERIMENTDr. Zimbardo -

• Encouraged the guards to conduct themselves as if they were real guards at a real prison.

• Made it clear to the guards that the prisoners could not be physically harmed, but said the guards should try to create an atmosphere in which the prisoners felt "powerless."

GOALS OF EXPERIMENT• Social reactions to stressful

environments• To see how much a person could take

before reacting negatively• Test people’s reaction to confinement

and being institutionalized

EFFECTS OF EXPERIMENT• Guards felt extremely guilty• Prisoners felt shameful• Ethical and moral values were

disrupted• Overall the subjects became too

involved in their roles and endangered their well being

SIGNIFICANCE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Corrections • Diversity within our correctional system brings a lot of attention from society. • The attention increases pressure upon the United States Sentencing Commission

Courts • Pushes for equal racial and gender treatment under sentencing guidelines• Fair sentencing is individualized sentencing.

THE LUCIFER EFFECT

PEOPLE+

SITUATION+

ETHOS__________

GOOD / BADBEHAVIOR(Stevens)

QUESTIONS?

REFERENCESflickr image 13. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2013, from flickr.com: http://ccs.infospace.com/ClickHandler.ashx?du=http%3a%2f

%2ffarm3.staticflickr.com%2f2312%2f2435590398_8011c9e cdb_z.jpg&ru=http%3a%2f%2ffarm3.staticflickr.com

%2f2312%2f2435590398_8011c9ecdb_z.jpg&ld=20130421&ap=13& app=1&c=info.metac&s=metacrawler&coi=772&c

McNamara, R., & Burns, R. (2009). Multiculturalism in the criminal justice system . New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill.

PSYBLOG. (2007, September 6). prison.jpeg. Retrieved from PSYBLOG: http://www.spring.org.uk/images/prison.jpg

Stevens, M. (n.d.). Neither a good cop or a bad cop. Retrieved April 21, 2013, from Flickr.com:

http://ccs.infospace.com/ClickHandler.ashx?du=http%3a%2f%2fimgc.allpostersimages.com%2fimages%2fP-473-488-

90%2f60%2f6000%2fBARQG00Z%2fposters%2fmick-stevens-i-m-neither-a-good-cop-nor-a-bad-cop-jerome-like- yourself-i-m-a-

compl-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg&ru=ht

United States Sentencing Commission. (2013). Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities In Federal Sentencing Today. Retrieved from

http://www.ussc.gov/Research/Research_Projects/Miscellaneous/15_Year_Study/chap4.pdf

Zimbardo, P. (1999-2013). Stanford Prison Experiment. Retrieved from http://www.prisonexp.org/

Zimbardo, P. (2008, February). The psychology of evil. Retrieved from TED Ideas worth spreading:

http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html