The Stanford Prison Experiment - Essay Example

Critique of The Stanford prison experiment In his experiment, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo strives to prove the effects that societal stereotypes and environments have on human behavior. The psychologist creates a simulation of a prison and recruits a group of both prisoners and prison guards. His observation of the groups shows changes in the behavior of both the guards and the prisoners. The same is the case in Plato’s The allegory of the cave in which he observed the behavior of people in relation to their environments. The roles on the other hand limit the reality that people experience thereby influencing the formation of both their behavior and understanding of reality. The change in the behavior of Zambrano’s participants is systematic and proves his claim that personal roles often change behaviors. Behaviors arise from people’s interaction with their immediate societies. As such, the roles coupled with the beliefs that the society has on such roles systematically influence the behavior of the people playing the role as the discussion below portrays. Both Plato and Zimbardo create an illusionary society by removing their subjects from the society to a new restricted space. While in the spaces, the perceptions of the subjects change based on their understanding of the surrounding. Zimbardo for example sought to establish whether the brutality in American prisons was a result of the guard’s sadistic personality or arose from the prison environment. He therefore recruits his subjects randomly from the society. The participants were normal individuals but without any prior engagements with prisons. As the participants spent more time in the prison environment, their behaviors began to change with the guards becoming increasingly aggressive in their behavior and brutal as they handle the prisoners. The prisoners on the other hand become increasingly submissive to the authority.in his study, Plato criticizes political structures and their effects in indoctrinating people thus influencing their beliefs and social understanding. “On the other hand, The Allegory of the caves is a discussion of politics: The Republic, from which it is taken, is a treatise on justice and the ideal government” (Plato 2). The limited space in the prison restricts the mindsets of both the prisoners and the guards especially when within the premises. The prisoners spent most of their time talking about the prison and prison life. Additionally, their prior understanding of prisons influenced their stories. The same is the case with the guards who become harsh and brutal owing to their belief that guards in prisons are always harsh and brutal to their prisoners. Zambrano’s findings in the detailed research is effective since it explains inherent human behavior and the fact that behaviors are social concepts that depending on the social construction of the various roles people play in their private lives. Another equally important demographic factor about the subjects in the research was their personalities. The fact that all the guards acquired new behaviors by becoming both harsh and brutal including some with multiple personalities was unique and strange to the study. In his separate study, Plato investigates the process of acquiring knowledge and such personality features as courage. In the study, Plato uses the case of a cave with people who live in the cave all their life. The group has no knowledge of the outside world. They comprehend the features based on the features of the cave and the shadows dangling on the roof of the cave. When released from the cave, the people react differently to the sun, trees and people among other living things. The people earn different based on their understanding of the world given the limited space of the cave. The research is symbolic and explains that the process of acquiring knowledge is always progressive beginning with the lower stages to the higher stages of knowledge acquisition. Every stage influences the process of acquiring knowledge. The relationship between the two studies is integral since Zimbardo investigates the development of human behaviors, which relies on the knowledge that people have about their environments. The brutality of prison guards in the United States is not only a stereotype but also a common knowledge in the society. As such, the participants in the study enlisted to the study while well aware of the nature of the relationship that exists between the guards and the prisoners. Their previous understanding of the two positions therefore influences their behavior while in the prison. The guards immediately become brutal towards the prisoners who also become both submissive and cooperative with the guards. Their understanding of the behavior was progressive as Plato explains in his separate study. Knowledge influences behavior change. However, the state often regulates the knowledge. “Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the state will be to compel the best minds to attain the knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all. They must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now” (Plato 5). The outcome of Zimbardo’s experiment proved that the social stereotypes have serious ramifications in the formation of behaviors. While Zimbardo planned for the experiment to take two weeks, it lasted six days. Most of the participants in the study developed serious psychological issues most of which would have lasting effects on them. Some of those playing the roles of prisoners developed serious psychological problems thus forcing Zimbardo to stop the experiment. Strange torturous environments have such effects on people and may always lead to permanent disruptions on the growth and developments of the people. Plato contends with the explanations as he establishes in his own study. The participants in his study also experience difficulty adjusting to the real life soon after they leave the cave. The new society presents them with myriad challenges since it requires an expansion of their mindsets. They struggle to comprehend the prevailing social features and realities most of which contradict with their previous understanding of the universe. They therefore face myriad difficulties and require the assistance of other normal people in order to fit perfectly into the new society and to understand its features as well. In retrospect, the development of behavior is a social process that relies on numerous factors. Key among such factors is the role that people play and the stereotypes associated with such roles. The guards in the experiment acquired authority over the prisoners. They therefore try to live as if actual guards based on their understanding of the relationship between guards and the prisoners. They become bully, brutal and sadistic towards the prisoners who become submissive and loyal. Additionally, the prisoners live in groups and form their own gangs while in the prisons thus creating a type of order unique to such settings. The experiment portrays the importance of knowledge about a role in influencing the behaviors. The systematic change in the behavior of the participants in the research is systematic to the change in the behavior of the participants in Plato’s experiment who depict the progressive process of acquiring knowledge and courage among other personality features. Works cited Plato. The Allegory of the caves. Oxford: OUP, 1922. Print. Zimbardo, Philip. Stanford prison experiment. Washington, DC: Office of Naval Research, 1971. Print. Read More