Stanford Prison Study
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Stanford Prison Study:
I will never forget reading this study. I was shocked and amazed that they would fall into such an abusive pattern like this rather its in a real prison atmosphere or in a “mock” prison. Thank got that for ethical reasons no study like this will be taking place this day and age.
As far as the prisoners, I figured that some of the prisoners would get into their rolls rather well, but I had no idea what they would go through. I assumed the prisoners would change a little bit, maybe getting more withdrawn or quiet and depressed but had no idea what might happen. They apparently took on the roll so much as to make themselves think they were in fact criminals. I think tv has made me falsely think of a prisoner as the guy behind bars yelling for his phone call, not a guy on the floor crying uncontrollably.
Probably the most shocking thing to me was the way the guards took onto their rolls. Its shocking they would be so mean to the students knowing that they were not real criminals and were there only there for a study. They knew they might see these people again and didnt seem to care who they were. They seemed to make themselves think that they were actually guards and the students were indeed prisoners.
Not that this is really any comparison but when we were in high school we got to go to our local jail and look around at how they had to live. This is probably for an overnight stay or very minimal stay, it scared me to death and faced me into reality what would happen if I ever got in trouble. I really couldnt imagine. It makes me wonder how these prisoner actors feel now, if they kept out of trouble because of this or if the mock guards kept up their abusive behaviors to other people.
I guess this leads me to believe if we are told something long enough we start to think that. The first thing I think of are parents who are abusive and tell their children things like “you are stupid” or “you cant do that”. If we are lead to believe we cant do something, than we are going to think we cant.