Reference no: EM133229643

Assignment:

For this discussion, we were assigned a video on The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo. Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist and distinguished professor at Stanford University. He is well known for his Stanford Prison Experiment. In his video, Zimbardo asserts a person isn't simplified as good or evil and that no good nor evil exists in people. Instead, structural and environmental factors influence how people behave, and each person has the potential to be good and bad. This reminded me of James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein and the theory that both social and psychological factors can affect criminal behavior, as mentioned in Biological Psychological and Evolutionary Theories of Crime from chapter three of our assigned readings. One bit of the video I really enjoyed learning was his apple theory.

In his theory, a bad apple stands in for the person, the bad apple barrel for the circumstance, and the barrel maker for the system. Zimbardo claims that a good apple may change into a bad apple if it is put in a bad barrel by the barrel maker. I thought this was a really interesting take, and it reminded me of a saying I've heard a lot in the south; "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." I really enjoyed the film and I plan to dive a little deeper into Philip Zimbardo, as well as the Stanford Prison Experiment.