In the article, The Stanford Prison Experiment by psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo, he describes an experiment that was aimed at demonstrating the influence of situational power on a person’s standards, morals, and attitudes. The experiment intended to explore the relationship between the guards and the prisoners, which ended up showing a deterioration of the established rules and morals that guide the manner in which individuals should behave towards each other. In that, the experiment showed the degeneration of character was so extreme, rapid, and unpredicted to the extent that it was to be cut short after six days, even though it was planned to continue for six weeks. According to physician Walker Percy in his article The Loss of The Creature, the transformation in character that took place between the two groups in the experiment can be referred to as a symbolic complex. In that, when individuals have preconceived ideas concerning something, such ideas can lead to the creation of a symbolic complex in the mind making them lose meaning behind it. The article by Zimbardo showed how situational power can lead to the erosion of ones highly upheld values and beliefs on the basis of Walker’s concept of pre-packaged ideas that create a symbolic complex in one’s mind.
In order to set the experiment rolling, Zimbardo established a simulated prison in the basement of Stanford University after which he place advertisements in the local newspaper stipulating the compensation amount. The advertisement led to the applications of seventy-five applicants from which twenty-four psychologically and emotionally stable men were picked and were randomly divided into two groups comprising of twelve prisoners and twelve guards. Zimbardo ensured that the guards’ appearance was less human by fitting them with intimidating uniforms in addition to being given wooden buttons. Moreover, mirrored sunglasses were also provided to the guards no eye contact was made between them and the prisoners. In contrast, prisoners were made to dress in low-cost attires with no underwear, wore labelled metallic chains around their ankles as a constant reminder that they were prisoners, and were to be called by and respond to identity numbers only. The prisoners were then asked to wait for the start of the experiment that began unexpectedly with a raid of their homes and their arrest as if they were real life suspect. What followed was the effort of the guards trying to assert their roles by subjecting the prisoners to a wide array of punishments to the extent that some of them began to display signs of emotional stress. After one day in the prison setting, the prisoners organised a demonstration to complain about the inhumane conditions, but their plea was turned into more pain as the guards decided to use fire extinguishers to calm the situation. The resulting tension was heightened as the guards continued to mistreat the prisoners until a visit by Christina, who could not withstand what she; hence, reporting the matter to Zimbardo, who terminated the program. Zimbardo claimed that people are bound change their values and beliefs which they uphold dearly when they are assigned positions of authority.
However, a view of Walker Percy theory on symbolic complex helps to shade light as to why the prisoners and the guards behaved the way they did by suggesting the concept of pre-packaged ideas that change the way people view things. In that, one can only understand something via a true experience and by getting rid of the preconceived ideas, social bias, and prejudice that have emanated from the experience of other people. He explains it by using a number of examples, one being the Grand Canyon that he believes the person who discovered it was the only who it for what it was. However, pictures of the Canyon have since been flooded in the media among other commercial platforms, when a person visits the Canyon, it ceases to be the sovereign discovery of beautiful feature before him, but it is quite the quantifying up of the feature to the standard of the already pre-packaged symbolic complex (Percy 469). In that, a tourist who has been seeing the Canyon in pictures will end up forming an idea in his or her mind on how the canyon appears based on the pictures he or she has been exposed to. Therefore, a visit to the Grand Canyon by the tourist will lead to his preconceived image or picture in his head giving him a false appreciation of the feature. This false appreciation is always due to the fact that the feature more often does not fit the preconceived idea or the already formed picture of the canyon in the tourists head.
The Zimbardo experiment showed the prisoners and the guards acting in a manner that they thought they were supposed to rather than basing their actions on personal values and beliefs. In that, the prison setting was new to them, as they had only seen it on televisions and heard biased stories about it; hence, leading to the formation of symbolic complex. The formed symbolic complex in both the minds of the prisoners and the guards led to them viewing the prison setting according to what they had seen in televisions instead of seeing or referring to the situation in terms of real life. In fact, guard M confessed on the manner in which he made the prisoners clean the toilets with the bare hands as he considered them as cattle and watched over them to make sure that they never tried anything (Zimbardo 736). Clearly, this shows that the guards were acting on what they heard prisons to be by effecting hard labour and even watching them to avoid escape ideas, which are preconceived perceptions of the prisons. The prisoners also organise for demonstrations as a way of showing how they should act in such a condition while those who acted calmly believed that is how they should behave.
In conclusion, Zimbardo experiment was aimed at demonstrating how situational power can be detrimental to a person’s character or behaviour, but Percy theory has shade more light on how a person’s preconceived ideas can transform his behaviour and actions. In that, the guards on having the feeling of power became harsh to prisoners even though it was merely an experiment, knowing very well that the inmates had not committed any crime. Therefore, the Zimbardo experiment was used to implement policies in prisons to ensure that such conflicts between inmates and guards do not occur. However, the reason as to why the inmates and he guards behaved the way they did can only be understood well by incorporating Percy’s theory of symbolic complex as they were acting based on the pre-packaged ideas of how people in a prison behaved.
Works Cited
Percy, Walker. “The Loss of the Creature.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2002. 313-23. Print.
Zimbardo, Philip G. “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 11th ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 732-43. Print.
