Course Name: Trends & Issues 1

Week 7 Assignment
Student Name: Priya Rachel Sam
HID no # H10001599

1. What is the main aspect of social behaviour being studied in this experiment?
In the given experiment, Dr Paul Zimbardo, psychologist and professor at Stanford University,
wanted to investigate on the topic, that a person’s nature cannot be judged by their behaviour
but because of the role they play and the expectations and rules that has to be followed. He was
interested to know whether the guards of a prison were actually brutal and sadist by their
behaviour or their role makes them do it.

2. What behaviours are expected in the prisoner and guard “roles”?

Guard were expected to be rude, imposing rules to control the prisoners and maintain law in the
premise. They had to be submissive and all power was given to them to control the prisoners.
But the inmates were seized from all sort of freedom, they were completely dependent on the
guards. They were suppose to follow all the rules imposed on them, and many of those laws
were very merciless.Even the attires of both guards and inmates spoke a lot, guards were given
suits and proper uniforms which were comfortable were as prisoners had to wear dress or
smock without any under dress and had prison ID printed both in front and back and chains
bolted on their right ankle.

3. What norms exist in a prison? Why do these norms exist?

Norms which exist in prison are:
● Strict rules to be followed by prisoners
● Punishments, like push-ups, or officer stepping or making other fellow inmates to sit on
the other inmates while doing push-ups.
● Harassing the inmates to the maximum
● Guards had the power to do anything to maintain the rules
● Prisoners were not allowed to urinate and they had to do the same inside the jail and at
times were not allowed to change the bucket as well.
These norms exists because, main aim of the government and the guards is to punish the
criminals to the crime they have committed, and keep the society safe. But the rules are very
depressive as the criminals can also become very rebellious later on. The government want the
criminals to realize their mistakes and should commit again.
 4. Explain the statement that there is a disconnect between reality and role-playing.
Even though the experiment was not a reality, but role played by the students who were actually
very psychologically healthy became very influenced by the role they were playing. Prisoners
became very depressed and lost confidence while guards became very sadist and cruel.

5. Consider the psychological consequences of stripping delousing and shaving the

heads of the prisoners. How would this impact a person’s personality in prison? Explain.
The person is losing his identity and self respect by stripping themselves, delousing and shaving
their heads in front of their other classmates(acting as guards). The person will be very broken
as nothing is more important than one's own self respect and dignity which he is losing.

6. Push-ups were considered mild form of punishment. What is the rationale for the
use of push-ups as a form of punishments?
Initially we thought push-ups is mild form of punishment but later on we realized that that
officers use to step on the prisoners or use to make other fellow prisoners sit on the back of the
prisoner who is performing push-ups.

7. The guards became more repressive as the experiment went on. Why did this occur
despite the fact this was not a “real” prison?
As the guards were given all power to control the inmates, they became more submissive and
they use to be more harsh as soon as they found any rebellious prisoner. They got very much
involved into the character that they forgot the fact they were just role playing.

8. What sort of conclusion might be drawn from the results of this study and what is
the implications of these conclusions for our prison system and for the society in
general?
It can be concluded that people can easily get influenced by the role they play while following
the rules and laws, especially stereotypical roles like of prison guards. If a person is guilty of the
crime, it is true that he/she should be punished, but not at the extent that we torture them and
put them depression state. Instead they should be made understood about their mistakes ,they
should be punished but some humanity should be shown. They should not become rebellious
rather a good citizen.

9. What are the ethical problems with this experiment? Would this study be considered
ethical today? Why? Why not?
The study had many criticism as, participants didn’t know they had to face so much
consequences. The prisoners were not protected from psychological harm, distress and
humiliation. This study will not performed in present time, as the concerns will not allow to
perform such inhumane activities which affects a person’s psychology and physical health.

10. What are the reasons in favour and against such a study? In your opinion was it
right to subject this subjects to this kind of sufferings in exchange for the information
that was gained?
Favour: By enacting the role, we get more idea how and what a prisoner go throughs and how
much they are tortured. As well we get the idea that person is transformed by the roles they
have to play.
Against:The participants who were psychologically healthy became depressive and sadist. The
participants who played prisoners went through lot of agony and were very much disturbed
whereas participants playing guard roles became more cruel and harsh.
According to me it's not appropriate to subject the subjects in such a phase as they lose their
identity and become depressed. To understand their sufferings we can go those places and
make a study and then try to improve them.