Zimbardo Research Paper
Leslie Massey
PSYCH/620
01/22/2015
Professor Sharon McNelly

Zimbardo Research Paper The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted in 1971 by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo. According to Dr. Steve Taylor (2007), “It’s probably the best known psychological study of all time.” (Classic Studies in Psychology, 2007). Zimbardo stated that the point was to see what would happen if he put “really good people in a bad place” (Dr. Zimbardo, 2007). He did this during a time were most college students were protesting for peace and were against anything authoritarian. The experiment contained both positive and negative aspects; which will be discussed further in this paper.
Value of the Study The value of
Three students had to leave because of the abuse and the whole experiment was shut down in only five days because of the increase chance of psychological damage due to the abuse. The mock-guards jumped into their role, but they were given no guidelines; no regulations. They took their role as the authority figure too far. Before beginning this study, the mock-guards should have been given some sort of “do not cross” line for their safety and for the safety of the mock-prisoners. The point of the study is to see what would happen if good people were put in a bad situation. Psychologically breaking the participants and opening up new, abusive behaviors in the guards could have been prevented.
Safeguards
Safeguards have been put in place to reduce the likelihood of ethical concerns arising in research studies to protect the participants and the good standing of experiments or research. Although some of the safeguards are too strict and can interfere with research; there are some experiments that could use sterner regulations. Participants should be given the opportunity to leave the experiment as soon as they no longer feel comfortable. It is also important to remain upfront and honest about the research. Many experiments require participants not to know what the research is observing, however; it is unethical to use dishonestly to lure people into agreeing to participate. Questionnaires