Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment is when twenty-four men were divided into two groups, the first group was the guards, and the second consist of so-called prisoners.  The volunteers who participated were selected from answering an ad in the local paper.  The ad stated it was looking for participants for a study involving the psychological effects of prison life.  Originally, there were 70 potential volunteers, but after ruling out any mental, medical, drug problems as well as those with past criminal history, the number of participants were of 24.  (Zimbardo, 1999)

 After the selection of who will be volunteering, scientists flipped a coin to see who will be the prisoners and who would be the guards.  Since each volunteer were randomly picked for their role assigned as well as under-went a series of diagnostic test, they seemingly enough were relatively no different from one another.  The simulated prison was designed in the basement of the school’s psychology department, where it was sectioned, boarded up (no windows) and classroom doors were exchanged for steel and barred prison doors.  Also created was a small confined outdoor area, labeled “The Yard.”  Researchers even designated a closet for solitary confinement.  The simulated prison was also under 24-hour surveillance and by reversing the signal on the schools basement intercom; they were able to tap all the cells.

            Upon the prisons completion, it was ready to populate with its new arrivals.  Which with the help of the local law enforcement, the students chosen as prisoners were obtained the way actual criminals were apprehended.  Police cars blazed their lights and sirens on the mid-August morning of 1971, where once found the students were publically humiliated in front of their neighbors and family.  They each arrived at the Palo Alto police station in California to be booked and processed.  Then escorted with bags over their heads to the school, where they were led to the basement and their assumed prison.

            Prisoners where then lined up, stripped naked and hosed down, as most prisoners are when arriving to real penitentiary to be decontaminated as well as humiliated.  Prisoners dress consist of a smock and a women’s knee-hi for their head.  In addition, prisoners were also forced to wear a chain and lock around their ankle, as a psychological vice to remind them of their captivity.  Guards also had a dress code, tan colored uniforms, clubs and reflective sunglasses to hide their emotions.