Attica Prison Experiment Essay

The Attica Prison riot of 1971 was caused by a variety of problems, but is unanimously attributed to the death of the African-American activist and author George Jackson. While incarcerated at San Quinton, Jackson’s work reached readers on an international level and inspired prisoners throughout the country. Inmates at the Attica state prison faced harsh conditions and without any other escape, used George Jackson’s, and other activist’s writing as a way to tolerate their environment. Temperatures reached well over one hundred degrees during the summer, prisoners were allowed less than one shower per week, and basic necessities such as toilet paper and medical treatment were withheld from inmates. These harsh conditions created a platform for

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by Phillip Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971 and was funded by the US Naval Office. The experiment consisted of 24 volunteer college students who were paid $15 a day to serve as guards and prisoners in a simulated prison environment. Prior to the experiment, each volunteer was given a diagnostic interview to eliminate anyone with “psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse.” The experiment “was intended to measure the effect of role-playing, labeling, and social expectations on behavior over a period of two weeks,” but Zimbardo ended it after six days due to abuse by the guards and the psychological wellbeing of the prisoners. By the second day of the experiment, Zimbardo already noticed behavioral changes in both the guards and prisoners.

What takes away this pressure? As each experimentee is told to inflict pain upon another human being they consider what makes it okay to do so. For instance, as a child if someone tells you to perform an act and you get in trouble for what you were told to do, a child would say, “They told me to do it.” Here it is the same instance. The experimentees are able to put full responsibility onto the shoulders of the experimental scientists because they were told to commit the action.

With the guards becoming crueler, it pushed the prisoners to pursue the role as a real-life prisoner. The prisoners began to feel humiliated by the guards and mentally harassed. One became so depressed that he had so much rage with uncontrollable crying, he was set free from the experiment (627). The guards would taunt the prisoners by singling them out because they would beg for it and they simply did not see eye to eye. As the hours passed, new emotions were being found within the prisoners and guards as this experiment was being conducted.

The participants in the experiments actually believed they had administered painful electric shocks to another human being, and were visibly distressed throughout the experiment. Although they were not forced to stay and complete the experiment, they were consistently encouraged to keep going despite their obvious discomfort. Milgram (1974) was very careful to debrief all of the participants thoroughly, and followed up on them for some time after the experiment. Despite what many people view as a questionable ethical conduct, 83 % of the participants indicated that they were glad they had taken part in the

He continues with observations of the first day of testing by quoting certain guard’s conversations with each other and prisoners. Proceeding, Zimbardo points out a riot initiated by the prisoners that was quickly snuffed out by the guards. He also emphasizes the point, “We were forced to release prisoner 8612 because of extreme depression…” Following the quote Zimbardo describes diary entries by one guard which explain a dramatic shift in mood in the guards. Zimbardo finishes his article with reasoning behind early termination of the experiment and expressed his regret of running the experiment.

In the early 19th century, hanging was the most common form of punishment by execution for major and serious crimes Prisons was a place that was used to hold debaters and people accused of crimes that were waiting or attending a trial. Some countries were not very responsible when it came up to locking up their sentenced criminals, instead they would “dump” their criminals in other lands ( Britain 's criminals deposited in Australia). By the 1830s, many areas in Australia were refusing to be the 'dumping-ground ' for Britain 's criminals. In order to solve this, Britain added 90 more prisons between 1842 and 1877.

Almost all the supporting material came from the official website of the Stanford Prison Experiment. I also quoted Stanford University’s official website, and Dr. Zimbardo’s TED talk to support the main points. For the visual aid I used photos from the Stanford Prison Experiment’s official website and Times 100 to aid the audience’s understanding of the topic. I also used a video clip from the Stanford Prison Experiment movie to demonstrate how the prisoners were being psychologically tortured by being placed in solitary confinement. I think explaining the clip before I played it helped the audience understand how it would support the main

The human mind is a very complex organ which contains many psychological components that are infinite to comprehend. Social constructionism is a field that can be broken down into two different paths, socials and psychological behavior. The two films the Stanford Prison Experiment and The Hunting Ground are good examples of both of these processes. The topics of these films are very relevant to the field of psychology due to their contribution to our everyday psychological brain functions.

The guards were instructed to maintain order anyway they wanted without using physical violence. Zimbardo wanted the guards to seem intimidating while the prisoners were made to look inferior and were to be referred to with their ID number only. After the prisoners were assigned their roles and the guards took their post was the effect of the experiment finally setting in. On the morning of the second day the prisoners began to rebel against the guards by ripping off their ID numbers and barring the doors while taunting the guards. This event was the first step down the slippery slope that would follow.

They also concluded that the environment of the prison played a vital role in the way the guards treated the prisoners. It is believed that this experiment changed the way some U.S. prisons are

She found that the person, who was defiant for the experiment, was a soldier who murdered Japs, and didn’t feel ashamed for it. He also kept Milgram’s cover and never told a soul about his experiment, even though it was an atrocious experiment. She also found out, that the person who was obedient in the experiment lived a great, normal life. After being in this type of observation, this subject felt that it helped him with life. He found how easily he was manipulated in such a test, that he began to become stern with himself and learned to deal with such expectations.

One of the main things that Asch’s experiments teach us is that people are extremely determined to fit in with others. In the short video clip titled “Would You Fall For That - Elevator Experiment”, we learned that people conform to the majority rather than risk being alienated from a group. This experiment, in particular, tested the Asch Paradigm to see how far people go to feel like a member of the group. They tested this by means of an elevator experiment in which actors would go in an elevator and face the wrong way and the unsuspecting victims were left to decide for themselves whether or not to conform to the group or to instead do what they felt was considered normal.

The experiment mainly focused on the participants appearance, for example prisoners were dressed into prison clothes for feeling more demeaned and humiliated, however at the same time guards were dressed into like real guards with sunglasses for appearing more detached and less humane. The results were terrifying because the guards took the matter seriously and sometimes harassed the prisoners with the help pf physical punishment, or even

While the test subjects did in fact consent to the experiment via documents, they developed this false understanding through the experiment that they could not leave at any time, that “there was no way out”. During this time period, there were no existing laws that this experiment violated but it did pave the way for several to be introduced. For example, in the consent form it stated that the prisoners would not experience physical harm, but several days later they were brutally beaten by the guards. A few scenarios such as this one would be considered illegal with today’s legal system. One law that was created after this required federal prisons to separate minors awaiting trial from adults to avoid them suffering from abuse.