Stanford Prision Study Essay

Submitted By netteandy
Words: 466
Pages: 2

Question 2: How did the fact that Philip Zimbardo simultaneously served as the Principal Investigator of the study and the Prison Superintendent aid in violating the ethical guidelines named in Q1? As the on overseeing the research, Philip Zimbardo should not have taken up the role as the Principal Investigator of this study. You cannot observe a study in it’s entirely for all of its worth and quirks. It’s hard to play devil’s advocate when you are directly involved in the situation. Philip did not avoid harming the subjects. Once the other participants of this study got over the initial stages of it being a joke, they all fell into the role of prisoners. I remember from movie, the guards had the other prisoners chanting “416 had did something wrong.” As the role of Principle Investigator he saw nothing wrong with it as jail was the setting being betrayed. Prisoner 416 was placed in solitary confinement for disobeying the rules that were placed on him. At one point, the mind set of Peter pays for Paul had set in. One prisoner refused to do something; the others were forced to perform push-ups or other exercises. In one scene, all the prisoners were given the option to give up their blankets for another inmate to come out of the hole. All but one would not give up their blankets to let the prisoner out of the hole so as a result, the prisoner had to stay in the hole another day. Philip should have stepped in but because he was playing the part of the Prison Superintendent he couldn’t see the psychological effect that the subject was undergoing. Some subjects became depressed from the treatment that they were given playing the prisoner. The subjects that played the