Power of the Situation (cont.)

1. Power of the Situation (cont.) Stanford Prison Experiment

2. The Power of the Situation • Last time we learned about how social conditions affect human behavior, thoughts, and feelings • Social influence and obedience affected how people responded to the Asch “line experiment” and the Milgram “obedience study” • Today we will discuss *why* the situation can influence us by learning about the “Stanford Prison Experiment”

3. Stanford Prison Experiment:some background information • Conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo and others in the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department. • Volunteers were randomly assigned to play the role of guards and prisoners in a mock prison in the basement. • Both prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their assigned roles, and lead to genuinely dangerous and psychologically damaging situations

4. Stanford Prison Experiment • Video about the experiment http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7923487947922730773

5. Stanford Prison Experiment:What would you have done? • If you were a prisoner, how would you have acted? • If you were a guard, how would you have acted? • After the study, how do you think the prisoners and guards felt when they saw each other in the same civilian clothes again?

6. Stanford Prison Experiment:What happened next? • Prisoner #416, who broke down within 36 hours, got a clinical psychology Ph.D., did his internship in a California prison, and became a forensic psychologist in the San Francisco County Jail. • "John Wayne“ is now a mild-mannered real estate broker. • Zimbardo recently retired from Stanford after a long career in social psychology.

7. Stanford Prison Experiment:Criticisms of the experiment • Unethical • Unscientific • No scientific controls because it was a field experiment • Small sample size of 24, but really just 1 group so N=1 • Conclusions and observations were anecdotal • Participants acted how they were expected to behave • Zimbardo gave guards no rules, said they could “create fear” • Zimbardo admitted he was not a neutral observer but acted like a “superintendent” who enabled the bad behavior

8. Stanford Prison Experiment:A replication? • In 2002 two psychologists from England conducted a partial replication with the assistance of the BBC who broadcast scenes from the study as a reality TV program called The Experiment. • Their results and conclusions were very different from Zimbardo's

9. BBC “The Experiment • How was it similar to Zimbardo’s study? • Randomly selected volunteers assigned to “guards” and “prisoners” • Mock prison created in the George Lucas soundstage in London. • End early (ended two days earlier than planned)

10. BBC “The Experiment” • How did it differ from Zimbardo’s study? • Psychologists only observers, not involved • “Guards” were given guidelines and instructions • Very different results • Guards were not sadistic or abusive, made peace with prisoners • Some guards were “repelled” by the situation, two left in “disgust” • What does this imply about Zimbardo study? • What does this imply about human nature?

11. Abu Ghraib prison • What do these experiments tell us about what happened at Abu Ghraib prison? • Did the power of the situation influence the guards? • Were there other factors involved?