Abstract
In a society, there are people of different characters. These characters are defined by the situations that people are in. Every member of the society wants some control and power so that they can gain some form of power over the others. People who take control of others like the correctional officers and prison guards find themselves asserting more authority over the prisoners even if they are different people of different personalities. This is what Philip Zimbardo wanted to show to the society in his famous Stanford Prison Experiment. In this experiment, there were different elements of power and authority that the researcher found. The findings were unbiased and most of the things that played out in the experiment happened naturally. Even when people know that the conditions that they are in are not permanent, there are natural changes that will undergo. Furthermore, groups always join together so that they can share their objections and even form riot groups. This paper looks at the Stanford prison experiment and the findings that Phillip Zimbardo made about the behavior of the group, power, and authority.
Keywords: Stanford Prison Experiment, findings, power, authority, group behavior, prison, guards, prison warden.
Introduction
In a society, people act differently depending on the conditions that they are put under. Every human has the evil side of him. This is what Philip Zimbardo wanted to prove through his Stanford prison experiment. Stanford prison experiment is one of the most famous experiments done in the history of humanity and his behavior. This experiment shows things that can happen to the human in case there is a psychological experiment that has been done on him or her. Stanford prison experiment showed that there is a possibility of degenerating and breaking the human moralities and rules that have been established and showed the way people behave towards one another. In the human psychology, several darknesses and immoralities take place. This experiment failed as a scientific or practical experiment. Nonetheless, it gave the unobstructed view of the psychology related to the way people behave. Denial of human rights in prisons is something that is frequent and common.
Everybody conforms to the roles that have been defined by the society no matter their character and behavior, especially those whose roles in the society are mainly stereotyped as the correctional officers.
Philip Zimbardo conducted this experiment. As a psychologist, Zimbardo wanted to demonstrate that the guards in prison only behave in accordance to the situation and how they felt that what they were doing is right. The prison guards do not depend on the moral judgments to make decisions. In this experiment, the researcher wanted to show what takes place when people do not have any of the human judgment and they are not controlled in any way. In the experiment, Philip Zimbardo used the guards in showing this entire process. So to do this, there was a mock prison that he used where he was also a participant. There were adverts for the jobs where the participants were to be paid fifteen dollars per day. Many people applied to become the prison guard who was given the uniforms so that they could appear s intimidating as possible. The prison guards were also selected randomly so that there is no biasness or any personal interest. The prisoners were to be dressed cheaply and show the accurate reflection of a prison. They were only to be addressed by their numbers and not personal names. They were also supposed to be chained on the neck (Zimbardo, 1973). Before going to prison, the prisoners were to be arrested by the real police and normally charged as if they were the real culprits. In the process, the people used to conduct the experiments were the real-life police and the operational courts that judged the victims. They were also sentenced for armed robbery so that the offense could be just as great as the other prisoners. The guards were not supposed to offer any form of physical punishment. Philip Zimbardo himself would be a prison warden so that he could see everything that took place in the process.
Findings on Power, Authority, and Group Behavior
The results and finding of the Stanford Prison Experiment were quick as the inhuman side of the people started to show. Just within hours, some guards were harassing the prisoners to insert their authority on the process. The whistles awakened the prisoners at 2:30 in the morning as the guards did everything they could for them to exert their authority on the prisoners. The prisoners also started adopting the settings in the prison as they addressed the guards with respect. On the other hand, the courts were used to exert the authority so that the prisoners could know that they were to be respectful to the guards. Physically, the prisoners were given tasks that were deemed pointless for them to complete. Hence, there was complete control of authority from the guards who wanted even more control over the prisoners. The guards also wanted to gain more power after the prisoners started to riot over the conditions that they were exposed to.
The other finding of power is that the humans always want to remain ion powered no matter what happens. After the prisoners had planned to riot, their privileges were cut down. Instead of the regular mattresses and blankets that they used to sleep, the guards stripped them of the privilege. They slept on the cold so that they could stop them from rioting. As the prisoners wanted to have more independent, the guards even wanted to have more power so that he could control them and prevent the riot (Zimbardo, 1973).
There experiment also found that he humans always respond to the human behavior. The group of prisoners started to behave as a group as the guards became more assertive and authoritative towards them. Most of the prison groups began to act in ways that they would please the guards so that they could not be punished. At the same time, some prisoners continuously planned for how they could strip the prisoners of their power. Hence, the experiment found out that when people are put together under the same condition, they are likely to form a bond. Then, prisoners, had they bond, and they started to rebel against the guards. Similarly, the guards bonded on their own as they wanted more power and authority. In the group of the prison guards, even Philip Zimbardo himself started to bond into the group of the guards without reading it. They even started to discuss the prisoners as a group; ‘Prisoner #819 is a bad prisoner. Because of what Prisoner #819 did, my cell is a mess, Mr. Correctional Officer.’ (Zimbardo, 1973)
In its conclusion, Stanford Prison Experiment concluded that people always conform to the societal roles that they are supposed to play. The guards conformed to these roles as they asserted control and physical punishments towards the prisoners.
