Jeffery D Whippo Gives His Assessment of the Psychological Importance of the Stanford Prison Study on Leadership

1. Jeffery D Whippo Gives His Assessment of the Psychological Importance of the Stanford Prison Study on Leadership

2. AboutStanford prison study conducted by Philip Zambardo in 1973 • Jeffery David Whippo, a well-educated expert in the areas of Educational Psychology and Leadership explains that the Stanford prison study was conducted by Philip Zambardo in 1973 to investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of both guard and prisoner during a role-playing exercise that simulated life in prison. • Jeff says that at that time there had been a great deal of reports of prison guard brutality and Zimbardo wanted to see if this was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards or if this behavior had more to do with the prison environment.

3. Zambardo Wanted To Study Was Disposition vs. Situation, Believes Whippo • From a psychological standpoint, Jeff Whippobelieves that what Zambardo wanted to study was disposition vs. situation. • Jeff says that Zambrano thought that both the prisoners and the guards may have the sort of personalities that made conflict inevitable. • He indicates that prisoners may display a lack of respect for the law, for order, and for the guards and conversely the guards may have had domineering and aggressive internal traits. • He further explains that the rigid power structure of the social environment of the prisons may have also been a contributor to the behaviors of both guards and prisoners.

4. How Would the Dispositional Hypothesis Be Confirmed? • Jeffery D Whippo suggests that the dispositional hypothesis would be confirmed if the prisoners and guards in the experiment behaved in a non-aggressive manner, conversely if the behavior of the guards and prisoners during the role-playing experiment was the same as in a real prison, the situational hypothesis would be confirmed. • Jeff describes how during the experiment it was quickly evident that the situational hypothesis would be confirmed. • The prison guards socialized into the role of prison guards similarly to guards in real prisons where their behavior had brutal and sadistic tendencies. • Jeff explains that the prisoners also socialized into the real prisoners as they felt helpless and submitted to the guard’s behaviors.

5. Whippo Also Describes the Concept of the “Group Norm” • Jeffery Whippoalso describes that the concept of the “group norm” was present for both the guards and the prisoners. • He says that the guards and prisoners quickly lost their true sense of personal identity because of the uniforms they wore and the situations they were placed in manifested what was the social norm.

6. Thank You JefferyDavidWhippoy