Reference no: EM133294609
The Stanford Prison Experiment
1. Why do you think the prisoners attributed guard brutality to the guards' character, rather than to the situation? Do you think they felt these students were evil to begin with? Which of the "Faces of Evil" listed in Chapter 4 do you see evident in this experiment? Which of the bad leader types did you see displayed most prominently by the "guards" when given access to absolute power in this circumstance. After hearing what research says about power and how it can corrupt in prison situations and how it is shown to have a corrosive effect on human nature, what recommendations would you make to leaders of the correctional system in our country?
2. If you were a guard, what type of guard would you have become when given the position of power? How sure are you? Do you think you could have been courageous or displayed any other virtue discussed in chapter 3 under these circumstances? What do you feel prevented "good guards" from objecting or countermanding the orders from tough or bad guards? Think in terms of character types, faces of evil, or bad leadership types in order to explain. Why do you think the prisoners failed to develop any camaraderie and the "guards" were able to break down any prisoner solidarity so quickly? Do you think this happens in real-world prisons?
3. Do you think that kids from an urban working class environment would have broken down emotionally in the same way the middle-class prisoners did? What about women? Do you think it would have changed the guards' treatment or behavior? Does this relate to character or circumstance? After the study, how do you think the prisoners and guards felt when they saw each other in the same civilian clothes again and saw their prison reconverted to a basement laboratory hallway? Your text talks about forgiveness and breaking the cycle of evil. Review aspects of what forgiveness is, what it is not, and discuss if you think participants would have benefitted from a sort of "forgiveness counseling."
4. Finally, was it ethical to do this study? Was it right to trade the suffering experienced by participants for the knowledge gained by the research? How do you view the ethical dilemmas is this research as they relate to leader character and circumstances? Would it be better if these studies had never been done? If you were the experimenter in charge, would you have done this study? Would you have terminated it earlier? Would you have conducted a follow-up study?