The Stanford Prison Experiment centered on two groups of people. As one might expect, there were the guards and there were the inmates. The guards shifted in and out every eight hours whereas the prisoners were truly playing the part of prisoners and were in their areas all day, every day. The guards wore military-style uniforms, wore mirrored sunglasses that obscured their eyes and carried nightsticks as they did their patrols. Their general orders were to keep order but they were not supposed to physically assault the prisoners in any way. The experiment went south in a hurry as the inmates started to rebel and antagonize the guards while the guards eventually broke the rules about not touching the inmates. It got so bad that some of the prisoners quit the experiment before it was actually over and the experiment itself was cut short due to the violence that was taking place between the two groups. While there are many things about this outcome that could be applied to today’s prison system, this experiment happened all the way back in 1971, more than forty years ago. In short, the guards became sadistic and the prisoners, even though they knew it was an experiment, became depressed and stressed out. The ostensible goal of the experiment was to show how psychology plays out when one is speaking about people confined in a prison under certain conditions (McLeod).
Human Nature Lessons
When it comes to what the Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment, the lessons that can be learned are numerous and staggering. As noted in the prior answer, something that is flooring about the Stanford experiment is that the groups knew that they were in an experiment, knew the rules that they were supposed to follow and they acted the way that they did anyway. This alone speaks volumes about what people of disparate backgrounds and without a common goal will do when they are placed into the same situation. Indeed, the guards took on the role as the menace and the controller while the prisoners sought to fight a battle of emotions and even fisticuffs against the guards. The author of this response has seen plenty a prison-related show like Jail on SpikeTV or Lockup on MSNBC and much the same thing can be seen in those prisoners. It gets to the point where even the most basic request is resisted by the income inmate. It could very well be that it is emblematic of a rebellion against authority on a personality level that the inmate has. However, there is certainly something to be said for how prisoners react once they are subjected to the prison environment for any amount of time. Indeed, non-criminals are probably less than sympathetic about the plight of people that have broken the law and yet complain about being confined and controlled. However, prisons should make whatever efforts they can to rehabilitate prisoners that will eventually be released (McLeod).
Works Cited
McLeod, Saul. "Stanford Prison Experiment | Simply Psychology". SimplyPsychology.org. N.p.,
2016. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.
