Mike's presentation on The Stanford Prison Experiment.

1. THE STANFORD PRISON
EXPERIMENT
MICHAEL MCCARTHY II

2. THE MOVIE
• The plot surrounds the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment
• Researchers, headed by Phillip Zimbardo, created an ad in the newspaper offering 15 dollars per day for
students to participate in a study over their summer break.
• The students were interviewed and the researchers flipped a coin to determine if they would be a
prisoner or a prison guard.

3. THE EXPERIMENT
• Zimbardo conducted an experiment to test his hypothesis that personality traits cause abusive behavior.
• Initially, it was supposed to be a 14 day prison simulation and occurred in the hallway of the university’s
psychology department.
• This was in the basement, so there were no windows or sense of time for the prisoners.
• The ”guards” are told they were chosen due to their high intellectual ability
• The prisoners were arrested on a Sunday afternoon by real police officers.

4. THE RESULTS
• The guards, and even the researchers, became abusive
• Sense of power over another individual
• Two of the students or “prisoners” quit the study early due to mental breakdowns.
• One of them quit on the second day.

5. PSYCHOLOGY
• Is brutality in prisons a result of personality traits or the environment?
• I chose this movie because during the Newspaper Project, a student described the Milgram experiment
about obeying commands.
• In the movie, Zimbardo states to the guards ‘Under no circumstances may not physically assault a
prisoner in any way”.
• However, during the experiment, Zimbardo acts as a warden and tells a correctional officer to regain control
when the prisoners try to fight back.
• It is my opinion, that this is where Zimbardo becomes a variable in his own research by encouraging the guards
to use more power, i.e. physical abuse.

6. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• Classical condition produce both positive and negative responses, depending on the association made.
• Positive reinforcement increases a behavior because the consequence is pleasant and negative
reinforcement increases a behavior because of an unwanted consequence is eliminated.
• The guards tried to use positive reinforcement by giving the prisoners who followed the rules, better
cells, meals and more privileges.
• In contrast, the prisoners who acted out and didn’t obey the rules were forced to do pushups, had
meals and beds taken away and where verbally and physically assaulted.
• Towards the end of the movie, Zimbardo stops the experiment when a guard forces a prisoner to sexually
assault another prisoner.

7. CONNECTIONS
• Classical Conditioning (positive reinforcement)-
• the prison guards tried to show the prisoners that if they
Listened to the guards, they would get nice meals and time out
Of their cell.
• Negative reinforcement
• The guards didn’t physically or verbally abuse the prisoners who behaved and followed the rules.
• Milgram experiment
• Role of authority versus individual personality differences.

8. REFERENCES
• The Everything Psychology Book by Kendra Cherry
• The notes from class
• The Stanford Prison Experiment movie