One of the most famous studies in psychology, called the Stanford Prison Study, was conducted by Philip Zimbardo in the 1970s. The findings from the study have been used to explain how a person’s behavior changes when they are in a role of authority. The findings help psychologist understand individuals such as Nazi soldiers during World War II or, more recently, American soldiers implicated in Iraqi prisoner abuse cases. Your mission is to consider the ethics of the original experiment.

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Thought Paper One

Requirements:

Your essay must be typed and approximately two doubled-spaced pages in length.

Your essay must be written in 12 point font. The font can be Arial, Times New Roman, or Calibri

Your essay must be your own work.

Your Mission:

One of the most famous studies in psychology, called the Stanford Prison Study, was conducted by Philip Zimbardo in the 1970s. The findings from the study have been used to explain how a person’s behavior changes when they are in a role of authority. The findings help psychologist understand individuals such as Nazi soldiers during World War II or, more recently, American soldiers implicated in Iraqi prisoner abuse cases. Your mission is to consider the ethics of the original experiment. Visit the website for the study: http://www.prisonexp.org/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.) and progress through the slide show of what happened. (There are great videos all along the way). Then, in your essay, answer these three questions in paragraph form:

 

  1. For this study, does the benefit to society outweigh the potential harm to participants? In other words, is it okay to potentially harm people if the results will have a large impact or provide some new information? Why or why not?

 

  1. If you were a prisoner in this study, what rights would you like to have? (For example: I would like the right to stop participating at any time.) Explain each right.

 

  1. If you were the experimenter in charge, would you have done this study? Would you have terminated it earlier? Why or why not?