entry#10-experiments...
We've all done experiments in the past. Whether they were in school or just personal everyday things. There are also experts who do experiments to test their findings or what they believe in. An experiment I remember talking about in Psychology class, which was extremely controversial, was the Stanford Prison Experiment.
This experiment was led by American psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo in 1971. The plan was to recruit 24 college students through an ad and they'd be paid $15 a day. According to Zimbardo, the reason for this experiment was to investigate what regular people would do if given authority over other people in a prison environment (for this experiment).
The students were divided into two groups, the guards and the prisoners. Zimbardo noticed that merely hours into the experiment both groups were adapting easily to their roles. The "guards" used control tactics and humiliation to keep the "prisoners" in control. An experiment that was meant to last two weeks, ended in six days. Zimbardo only ended the experiment because someone else disagreed with his way of carrying out the experiment. He admitted being to immersed in his role as prison "superintendent".
The experiment was controversial because some of the students left the experiment hurt in one way or another. According to the APA (American Psychological Association) ethics code, "In their professional actions, psychologists seek to safeguard the welfare and rights of those with whom they interact professionally and other affected persons, and the welfare of animal subjects of research". It is clear to see why there'd be such a reaction from other psychologists.
This experiment really stuck with me because it revealed that given authority or power, humans will do anything to other humans. In my opinion, this could explain a lot of historical events. There is also a movie based off of this experiment called, The Stanford Prison Experiment. If you found this topic interesting you might like the movie.
The Stanford prison experiment is so so interesting ! It's crazy to see what happens when a human is given a sense of authority. It's horrible that some of the "prisoners" were really hurt in the process.
ReplyDeleteIt is human nature to want to be in power over people. Something in our DNA says we most control others. So of us would go about this differently then humiliating people. So would us the power to show dominance over others and others would us it to get something in return. This is what today's society has become. Sadly enough people have a wicked side to them that some don't even know yet. We as a society need to try to do better to stop these horrible thing in society.
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