Jomel Rodrigo Business

Research

BSBA-Ma III TTH 1:00-2:30

Experimental Study

Stanford Prison Experiment

This infamous Stanford Prison Experiment has etched its place in history, as a notorious
example of the unexpected effects that can occur when psychological experiments into
human nature are performed.
This infamous Stanford Prison Experiment has etched its place in history, as a notorious
example of the unexpected effects that can occur when psychological experiments into
human nature are performed.
Like a real life Lord of the Flies', it showed a degeneration and breakdown of the established
rules and morals dictating exactly how people should behave towards each other.

The study created more new questions than it answered, about the amorality and darkness that
inhabits the human psyche.

As a purely scientific venture, the experiment was a failure, but it generated some results that
give an insight into human psychology and social behavior. The ethical implications of this study
are still discussed in college and undergraduate psychology classes all across the world.
In the days of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo abuses, the Stanford Prison Experiment is once
again becoming relevant, showing that systematic abuse and denial of human rights is never far
away in any prison facility.

This study is so well known that a Hollywood movie about the Stanford Prison Experiment is
going to be released in 2009. The experiment has also been the basis of many similar studies,
over the years, but these have had much stricter controls and monitoring in place.

Background

In 1971, the psychologist Philip Zimbardo tried to show that prison guards and convicts would
tend to slip into predefined roles, behaving in a way that they thought was required, rather than
using their own judgment and morals.

Zimbardo was trying to show what happened when all of the individuality and dignity was
stripped away from a human, and their life was completely controlled.

He wanted show the dehumanization and loosening of social and moral values that can happen
to guards immersed in such a situation.

ing exactly how people should behave towards each other.

Descrriptive Study

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND DESIGNS

Descriptive research is used to answer descriptive research questions:

What is happening? How is something happening? Why is something happening?

Examples:
What is the average age at which children learn to walk?
What is the association between birth order and social skills?
How does self esteem differ among adolescents who differ in the timing of their puberty?
Why does school climate influence student achievement?

Descriptive research designs include the following:

1. Simple descriptive
data are collected to describe
researcher administers a survey to a random sample of autistic children in order to
describe the characteristics of the population of autistic children

Ex1: What percent of children are autistic?

Ex2: Given the spectrum of disorders within autism, what is the range of functioning?

2. Comparative descriptive
describes two or more groups for comparison
researcher administers a depression inventory to popular, rejected, and neglected students

Ex1: What are the depression levels of popular vs. rejected, vs. neglected students?
Ex2: What is the percentage of male vs. female students who are popular?
Ex3: What is the percentage of males vs. females who are depressed?

Hint: It may help to think about different levels/categories of your topic and/or different subject
variables.

3. Correlational
describe the statistical association between two or more variables
researcher measures the student-teacher ratio in each classroom in a school district and
measures the average student achievement on the state assessment in each of these same
classrooms. Next the researcher uses statistical techniques to measure whether the student-teacher
ratio and student achievement in the school district are connected numerically; for example, when
the student-teacher ratio changes in value, so does student achievement.

Note: the researcher did not manipulate the student-teacher ratio, they simply measured/captured a
pre-existing value.
 Ex1: What is the relationship between severity of autism and others helping behaviors (the more
sever the autism the more or less others help you)?
Ex2: What is the relationship between GPA and degree of popularity?
Historical Resaerch

The evolution trial of 1925

It was made a farce and a comedy by the circumstances surrounding the trial.
Behind this facade lay issues that were deeply disturbing to the Americans of the
1920s. By an examination of the Scopes Trial, some of these issues can begin to be
perceived and analyzed and perhaps they can reveal a better understanding of the
decade. (There is no thesis here. The last sentence seems to be a thesis, but
actually speaks to the way the paper will proceed rather than to its conclusion. It
does not explain why or how something happened.)

Henry David Thoreau, the author of Walden, and Theodore Parker, the unitarian
minister and abolitionist, were two of the greatest minds of the antebellum period.
The purpose of this paper is to examine means of resistance through a comparison
of the philosophies of Thoreau and Parker. (This is a statement of purpose and
method, but does not begin to offer a thesis. What is the question or problem?
Comparison is a method of inquiry that leads to a thesis, not a thesis itself.)

As slaves, African Americans were given little or no rights as families. Husbands and
wives were parted, and children were separated from their mothers by masters who
had no qualms about selling them. Even those families kept intact were by no
means protected from the hardships of slavery. Through emancipation came new
opportunities and problems for African American families. (This is a little closer, but
still problematic. It does assert something [emancipation brought "new
opportunities and problems"] about its subject [African American families]. Yet this
assertion is vague; it lacks focus and direction. More questions need to be asked:
What kind of opportunities and problems did emancipation present? Which
[opportunities or problems] were more important to the shaping of post-
emancipation life? In short, the assertion made here is neither sufficiently
adventurous nor specific to qualify as a good thesis.)

The plot summary thesis:

The Confederate soldiers gave up their weapons after General Lee surrendered to
General Grant.

Proving the universal:

The U.S. Civil War was a conflict between the North and the South.

The overly general thesis:

The U.S. Civil War demonstrated that war could be very bloody. [Note: if you can
plug another subject/topic into your thesis, your thesis is probably too general.]

The clich thesis:

The U.S. Civil War proved that war is hell.

The list thesis:

The death of civilians, the destruction of cities, and the devastation of countrysides
showed the extent to which the U.S. Civil War severely damaged the entire nation.
[Nothing technically wrong with this thesis, but its really boring! This is a great
place to start with a thesis statement; then expand and/or finesse the what? how?
and why? components.]

Bell Irvin Wiley, in The Life of Johnny Reb, shows how the common soldier dealt with
the war to get the reader to understand that the war was about more than politics
and politicians. [All texts are addressed somehow to readers. This is not an
analytical point.]

Successful thesis:

In both its geography and its brutality, the U.S. Civil War remains vastly different
from other conflicts experience by Americans in the past three centuries.
Specifically, the widespread impact of the war on the citizenry, the economy, and
the landscape proves that the importance of the Civil War lies as much on the home
front as it does on the battlefield.

Why is it successful?

- Its specific.

- It addresses a potential contradiction and is arguable.

- It provides a logical way to structure the argument.

- Its fairly daring intellectually and has an interesting so what?

- Can you identify the various components?