Stanford Prison Experiment.

The Stanford prison experiment was conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo and a team of researchers. A sample of 24 college students were selected after they volunteered by responding to an ad which asked for volunteers to be part of a study of the psychological effects of prison life. The participants were all healthy males who were split into two groups by the toss of coin one side were prisoners and others were guards. Once a prison environment was set up the researchers could watch what happens to the participants.

                The prisoners were stripped and searched which would have been humiliating for them. Also they always had a heavy chain attached to their foot this could create feeling of oppressiveness in the environment they were in. The prisoners weren’t allowed to use their names but were given a number to be identified by. The guards were basically given free rein in what they felt was the best thing to do in keeping order in the prison. At first both sides didn’t take control of their roles but eventually guards enforced push-ups as a form of punishment. On the second day of the experiment the prisoners began to rebel and so the guards reacted by setting up a privilege cell. This cell was given to prisoners who were least involved in the rebellion. The rest of the prisoner`s were not given food for a period of time but could watch the privileged prisoner`s. Some were put into solitary confinement for longer than their own rules stated when the prison was first set up. By this stage the prisoners had most of their basic human rights removed. One prisoner began to suffer and went into uncontrollable rage or crying after 36 hours of the experiment, the researchers believed that he was faking it in order that he could be released. This shows how all the participants and the researchers had become immersed so quickly into their roles in the prison.

                Eventually the researchers and Zimbardo (1971) decided to end the experiment early due to how the situation had gotten out of control in how the participants were behaving. The first reason for this was because through watching the night-time recordings they learnt that the guards increased abuse to prisoners because they thought no one would be watching at that time. The second reason was because an individual came in to conduct interviews with the participants saw the state they were living in and how they were being treated, they spoke to the researchers in which they then realized how far the experiment had gone.

                Even though the APA in 1973 had ruled that no ethical guidelines were disregarded I believe that the experiment went too far as the participants were manipulated beyond what the experiments purpose was. The participants suffered emotional stress throughout the period they were there and were subjected to humiliation that they didn’t deserve as none of the participants had criminal convictions. The fact that the researchers let the guards intimidate and harass the prisoners I think is unfair and goes beyond what is expectable in a research experiment. I think that the researchers, guards and prisoner`s got sub merged into their roles and forgot exactly what they were doing. This I think lead to how the prisoners were treated as the people involved forgot that it wasn’t a real prison but an experiment. I therefore think that they should have ended the experiment much sooner than they did. Even though the participants had given consent to be part of the experiment I think that no one was prepared enough to know how people would go into their prison roles. Therefore an independent advisor should have overseen the experiment, not get immersed in it but should have stopped it when the prisoners were being harmed.

References:

Phillip G. Zimbardo. (1999-2011). The Stanford prison experiment. In SPE. Retrieved October. 20, 2011, from http://www.prisonexp.org/.

What makes a research finding important?

New research findings are found each day on different aspects throughout the world. Research is to establish and find new facts in order to reach conclusions. Research can help improve the lives of different people for example research into curing and preventing cancer.

Pavlov (1927) developed classical conditioning and Milgram (1961) discovered that individuals will obey more to figures of authority. These types of research I think could be defined as important research as they presented new information in understanding different behaviours. These cases did come at some ethical cost to the participants which can lead to the debate whether or not the research was important enough to push ethical boundaries. I think that maybe they did push the ethical boundaries such as Milgram`s experiment possibly caused emotional stress to participants but this research was important in understanding the aspects of obedience.

A new research finding can change what people already believe which will hold people’s attention to it. I think unless it is changing of what we already believe in some research findings won’t be important. This can mean that some research findings are published but aren’t actually known by the public as a whole. A good researcher should be familiar in the way in which good research is carried out. This determines the adequacy and the value of the findings Dennis Howitt and Duncan Cramer (2008). I think that is also important factor in how important a research finding is as the value of finding also means how important it will be.

Research findings can soon change as new research is found that conflicts with previous research findings. As research progresses new ways of testing different factors are used and so this changes how research is collected. Researchers all have different opinions and perspectives and so they will challenge other researchers work they may not agree with.  I think that this is good as without debate or challenging other psychologists findings research in psychology would not progress into reaching new conclusions. New theories can be created from this and I think that to make a research finding important it has to be debatable so the field can progress.

Research doesn’t have to back up an already existing theory with evidence to be classes as important research. I think that also important research should lead to new information in which new doors can be opened to be able to more research forward.

 

References:

Howitt. D & Cramer. D (2008). The role of research in psychology. 2^nd Ed Introduction to research methods in psychology. Pg 3. Essex. Pearson Education Limited.

Can the boundaries of ethics be pushed?

Ethics are set out to protect research participant’s health and well-being. Ethics include beneficence, fidelity, responsibility, integrity, justice and the respect of participant’s human rights and dignity.

When conducting research psychologists have to make sure participants give consent that they want to take part in the study and know of any affects the research could have on them. Also that they know that they can with-draw from the study at any point they wish. I think that these points above should not be changed but I do believe in desperate cases the boundaries of ethics could be pushed in order to understand and possibly resolve an issue.

This should only be done if it is needed and is the last resort as others have been dis-missed due to them not giving results that research properly into the issue. If the boundaries of ethics were pushed then the participants who chose to take part in the research should not just be thrown into the research. I think that in order to make sure they understand any consequences of the research they should be questioned over a period of time to make sure that they definitely want to take part and are not acting on a `spur of the moment`. The participants should know of any effects the research may have on them and should be told what exactly will happen during the `experience`.

There are things that should never be done and ethics should never be ignored especially in order to conduct research. But I do believe that sometimes ethical boundaries could be pushed if all those involved were willing and educated about the research in order to help improve an issue.