Hostos’ Journal
May 27, 2020
biological/physiological, evolutionary, cognitive, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, sociocultural, eclectic
May 27, 2020

Stanford Prison Experiment

Chapter 10 of the course textbook discusses one of the most famous psychological experiments of all time, conducted by Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University. To read more of the details of this experiment, visit the site, http://www.prisonexp.org. After reading about this study, answer the following questions:

Was it ethical to do this study?

According to follow-up interviews, the experimenters did not take this issue lightly. Was it right to trade the suffering experienced by participants for the knowledge gained by the research?

What does this experiment tell us about some of the conformity, obedience, compliance and some of the other concepts in social psychology?