Morality In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

In Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s The Stanford Prison Experiment, 20 college aged boys are selected to play different roles in a simulated prison located within Stanford. This experiment was thought of and carried out by Philip Zimbardo, a professor of psychology. The boys, who were also students at Stanford, were randomly selected to be a guard or a prisoner. The prisoners were taken by real police officers to the Stanford jail. When the experiment started, most of the prisoners thought of the situation as it was intended to be, an experiment.

Flight or fight is the brain’s natural response to danger. Most people say that flight is cowardly and you should stand your ground. However, both responses take strength and

As much as humans have diverged from their animal ancestors, it is part of human condition to resort to the most basic animal instincts in times of crisis. Human Condition drives behavior and decision making when humans are in a state of panic. In the novel And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, the guests begin to act uncivilized while trying to escape the murderer’s wrath. Similarly the article “Iran Arrests ‘Agatha Christie Serial Killer’” illustrates a desperate woman who resorts to animal instincts during a time of crisis in her life.

The guards were cruel and even made the prisoners do menial tasks. The prisoners also broke and could no longer control their emotions, some prisoners also went into depression. For example, one prisoner had to be released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying and anger. But, the experiment had long term effects that Zimbardo thought to be superior to the short-term effects, hence he decided to continue the experiment. Zimbardo chose to get the long-term effects instead of worrying about the short-term effects.

Conclusion This experiment was very educative and informative study which is a simulation of the prison life in most prisons in the world today, were the subjects have been made to understand that they have no human rights as they deserve such hostile treatments. I recall in my country we could witness prisoners being carried in a “caged” trucks transporting them to go and work on people’s private farms, and they pay money to the administrators of these institutions so called rehabilitation centers were prisoner are subjected under very hard conditions thinking they are shaping their behaviors positively .In line with this pattern of thought, it’s not enough to say that only prisoners are responsible for the undesirable conditions in the prison but also the administrators

In 1971, Philip Zimbardo set out to conduct an experiment to observe behavior as well as obedience. In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, many dispute whether it was obedience or merely conforming to their predesigned social roles of guards and prisoners that transpired throughout the experiment. Initially, the experiment was meant to test the roles people play in prison environment; Zimbardo was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards, disposition, or had more to do with the prison environment. This phenomenon has been arguably known to possibly influencing the catastrophic similarities which occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.The

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.

After the experiment, the students who played the guards were interviewed and found to still be shocked by their behavior within the fake prison environment, unrecognising that side of them or that they were even capable of doing such evil and abusive

Choosing to fight as a response to fear may be displayed as a physical or verbal contention (Amy Marschall, 2021). Many characters portray verbal dispute as they become fearful for the lives of others and their own.

During the fall of 1973, Phillip Zimbardo conducted his famous Stanford Prison Study where he recruited 24 undergraduate students to either become prisoners or guards in his experimental prison: the “Stanford County Jail". The recreation of this prison was conducted to study how an individual’s status and/or label changed depending on the social role they had to fulfill. The participants included 12 guards and 12 prisoners, each given proper uniform to wear, such as providing the prisoners with a smock that contained ID numbers on both sides and a chain with a heavy ball around their ankle. Both groups were also given detailed instructions on the requirements they had to complete in order for the individual to assimilate to their character.

The guards also had the ethical expectation to act has real prison guards in real prison, this happened as soon as the prisoners started to become like real prisoners themselves. The guards taunted the prisoners with

Zimbardo can have all participants attend an ethics course and social skills class before the experiment in order to promote appropriate ethical behavior. If an individual receives social skills training and encouragement, it helps them gain empathy for others (Stepien & Baernstein, 2006). In addition, Zimbardo who is part of administration can model for the guards positive interactions with the prisoners, to help encourage positive behaviors between guards and prisoners. Lastly, Zimbardo can create positive labels for his participants to promote altruistic behavior by reminding them constantly that they caring and nice people. Furthermore, informing the guards that prisoners are there for rehabilitation and that everyone deserves more than one chance in life, can help promote a more positive environment.

A scholar wrote reflecting the acts of a warrior, "Since hope and meaning in heroic life are found only in action, the only possible response to terror is to act against it." (Cox) If a warrior was expected to act against any form of threat, the warrior was trusted among the lay people of the kingdom. The people believed that the warrior should have pride in himself so he has the potential to act against terror. The fear was that if a warrior did not have faith in himself, he would be a coward and not act upon terror or he would go into battle and lose.

As we grow we are taught many sayings that pertain to the need to rise above, and overcome. Quotes such as “survival ofthe fittest”, “the law of the jungle”, “eat or be eaten”, “every man for themselves”, the list goes on. And it is all these quotes that reference to one single thing, the ability to overcome. Not only us humans, but animals as well, we all have a driving force wired within us that makes us want to live. Fear, is an instinct the brain triggers when in the wake of danger and is there to prevent its own demise, and all species have learned to adapt to prevent their own fears from happening.

The Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971 illustrated the direct relationship between power of situations and circumstances to shape an individual’s behavior. During this study 24 undergraduates were grouped into roles of either a Prisoner or a Guard, the study was located in a mock correctional facility in the basement of Stanford University. Researchers then observed the prisoners and guards using hidden cameras. The study was meant to last two weeks. However, the brutality of the Guards and the suffering of the Prisoners was so intense that it had to be terminated after only six days.