Responces

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This was not an ethical way to conduct the study. The means that Zimbardo had conducted it violated the rights of the students because they were truly treated like prisoners. Some of the terms that were agreed upon were violated for some of the members that auditioned to be acting prisoners and not real ones. The prisoners were forced against their will and commanded to do many things that even some prisons would not even do. The agreement that the members all signed up for was violated with not only was not ethical but morally wrong as well. Hence why the experiment was stopped at six days instead of running to full term of two weeks. The intent was to reveal a dehumanization and loosening of social and moral values that happens to those who are in charge of inmates. This experiment certainly showed that and how the power went straight to their heads. The experiment did show a dark side of humans and how they can let their psyche take over and full control. Personally I feel that the experiment did in essence meet the intent but it could have been done on a smaller scale and a more controlled environment. The guards were given free range and this created less control over the variables and less constraints to the experiment. This experiment relates to this weeks studying of social psychology by how the guards interacted with the inmates. The guards are dealing with the psychology of the prisoners in order to avoid any misunderstanding. But in time the guards were losing touch with the prisoners and confused them by playing around with their own psychology to maintain order and control over their prisoners. This was definitely the breaking point and loss of control for the guards. They become more manipulative and aggressive which gave them the power but also the social psychology within their interactions with the prisoners.

David