The Stanford Prison Experiment was just that: an experiment. Conducted by Phillip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D. in August, 1971; the experiment was designed to study the psyche of both prison guards, and their inmates. The presence of power in the hands of guards was studied as well as the counterpart of removal of such power and freedom from the hands of prisoners. 24 college men participated in the experiment voluntarily, and were randomly appointed to one of the two roles. The outline of the experiment declared the duration to be one to two weeks for the volunteers based on the sole person’s choice. This timeline, however, was halted to six days after unforeseen mental effects caused Zimbardo to call the experiment off for the health of the students.
The voices present within the archive fall upon four major categories: experiment staff, prison guards, prisoners, and outside media. The main focus, and the majority of the information comes directly from the volunteers. This was the goal of the study. Zimbardo wished to directly document the thoughts, actions, and effects upon the student participants. The audio recordings clearly draw direct thoughts from the students, as well as the transcripts, and videos. As a viewer of the archive, one is able to observe every aspect of those involved. The voices are heard from the first day to the last of the experiment, and there is a noticeable change in the enthusiasm and demeanor of the prisoners- which decreases greatly- and the guards; increasing throughout.
This archive collection was composed by the Stanford University Library staff. Currently, the lead contact on the works is Mr. Daniel Hartwig. He is a faculty member at the university whose job title is the University Archivist. Since most of the information in the archive came directly from the study, it is assumed the sponsorship was that of the university’s as well. No other available information states otherwise.
The archive includes multiple sources of information, and covers every aspect of the experiment. In ascending order of items in each category of documentation, the archive includes news articles (17), audio transcripts (25), video recordings (29), audio recordings (52), text files (125), a slideshow (192), and photographs (204). The information in each of these sources came from perspectives of Zimbardo, his colleagues, campus news sources, world news sources, and directly from the experiment volunteers. There are different stances presented within each category of information from different persons- both those affiliated, and unaffiliated with the experiment.
Unable to determine the exact date the archive was published, one will still find it was updated on 22, March 2018. The archive focuses solely on the events surrounding the Stanford Prison Experiment, and the papers written by Dr. Zimbardo on the research conducted. The archive was composed for three reasons. Firstly, the research was published by Zimbardo in order to improve the field of psychology and its understanding of the effects of imprisonment. Secondly, it serves to educate students in a similar manner in the form of instruction. Thirdly, the archive serves as insight into the horrors of imprisonment, and the devastating effects it can have on a persons mental and physical health.
The archive achieves all of these purposes by offering a wide variety of information, and organizing it in a manner which is easy to access. The archive’s page is very easy to navigate. It includes boxes with category labels, numbers of items within each category, and cover photos. The text is easy to read, and the page does not have an excessive amount of color and contrast, which would make the page too loud, and difficult, if not distracting to comprehend.
After researching the topic on the internet, one would find several other archives over the same topic. One such archive was simply titled “Stanford Prison Experiment.” This archive was found on the website archive.com. This particular website is open access, and whoever chooses to may upload what they please. The archive on the website pertaining to the experiment offered very little information on the topic. There was a video documentary which was 20 minutes in length. There was also a brief description of Dr. Zimbardo. The archive briefly explains the purpose, and context of the experiment, but not much else.
There is a great difference between the two archives. Firstly, the archive by Stanford University offers seven different types of media. There are a total of 644 items in the archive by Stanford. The Archive.com website only offers two types of information on the subject, with two items in total. Secondly, Stanford University’s website was much more organized, and user friendly. The Archive.com website was very difficult to navigate, and would not be very useful for researching. Thirdly, the archive on Stanford’s website is peer reviewed, and updated regularly. The other is open access, and displays no updates; signifying it was not updated after being published. This being so, The Archive.com collection does not seem very credible, and is likely to contain fallacies which might lead researchers astray.
Overall, the archive presented by the library at Stanford is very effective in presenting the information by offering numerous sources and source types, unbiased and peer reviewed information, and by organizing the material in a manner which is both easy to navigate and comprehend. This archive will answer any questions a reader might have on the topic, and in such a case as there are unanswered questions, the contact information of the curator is present.
Works Cited
- California Revealed. Stanford Prison Experiment. Archive.com. https://archive.org/details/cst_000035. 4 February 2019
- Hartwig, Daniel. Stanford Prison Experiment – Spotlight at Stanford. Stanford University. exhibits.stanford.edu/spe/browse. 1 February 2019
