Clarisa May S.

Oranda May 2, 2019

2014-59753 Socio 101-MHE
“The Stanford Prison Experiment”
An ad was sent out for male college students needed for a psychological study of prison life with
a pay of $15 for 1-2 weeks. An interview screening process occurred where they were asked about
urges, and overall psychological health and why they applied, in which most did for the money.
Most also preferred to be a prisoner than a guard. The team flipped a coin to decide who would be
the guards and the prisoners but the subjects were told that it was based on the results of the
interview. The study was headed by Dr. Phil Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford
University. Offices were converted into cells and hallways into prison yards to resemble the prison
setting. The “prison guards” were told that they were not allowed to hit or physically assault the
prisoners in any way and that they would be watched. Sunglasses and uniforms were given to
differentiate them from the prisoners and give the impression that they’re a unified, singular
authority. The prisoners were made to go through the entire process of getting arrested. Guards
started getting bossy and prisoners were insulted, told to strip and referred to as numbers not
people. Jesse Fletcher, the consultant on that experiment, who was once in prison starts to question
the legitimacy of the experiment and why the prisoners were made to wear dresses as Dr. Zimbardo
explains that this is done to feminize them and strip away their individuality. The prisoners were
told of the rules and were tasked to write letters to their loved ones and one of them signed the
letter with his prison number. ‘John Wayne’, a guard, took a leadership role the moment he stepped
into the yard, punishing the prisoners with jumping jacks and push-ups if they failed to do an order
and one of the prisoners, Daniel, was sent to the hole. As the guards changed shifts and told stories
about what happened, the other guard was pleasantly surprised that the prisoners just did what the
guards told them to do. When it was time for his shift, this guard woke the prisoners up and made
them do a handful of jumping jacks, sit-ups and push-ups. Another prisoner got sent to the hole
for calling that guard a fascist pig. At this point, things start to escalate as Daniel, fueled by anger
after the guard messed up the bed he made, charged at his neck and the guard hit him with the
baton as the other prisoners stared in disbelief. Daniel was then sent to the hole and starts talking
about rebelling with the prisoner that was in there. The next day, another prisoner was sent to the
hole just for refusing to leave the table as he wanted his glasses. At this point, the members of the
team watching the whole thing going on, decided to call Dr. Zimbardo but he wanted the
experiment to continue as it had only been a day. The next day, three of the prisoners decided to
rebel by taking off their prison numbers and blocking the door as Daniel cheers them on from the
other cell. At this point, all hell breaks loose as the guards start messing up the beds in Daniel’s
cell and roughing them up but the prisoners in cell three were more submissive as they helped the
guards take out the beds. One of the prisoners, Jeff refused to put his cap back on so the guards
tied his hands and feet together with a rope. The ‘model prisoners’ from cell three were given great
food as compensation for their cooperation. After a failed escape attempt, Daniel and another
prisoner gets punished. Daniel screams for a doctor and Dr. Zimbardo decided to take him to an
old classroom upstairs but instead of providing help, he is told that he is weak and would not be
released. Daniel returns to the prison, breaks down, telling the other prisoners that it’s all real and
that they would not be released. He screams into the cameras telling them they had no right to
mess with his head. The other members of the team decided to let Daniel go which frustrated Dr.
Zimbardo. Visitation day comes and the team listens to a conversation between two prisoners about
Daniel and how he had promised the other prisoner he escaped with that if one of them were to get
out, he would bust the other prisoners out. As the other prisoners realized that Daniel wasn’t going
to get them out, another prisoner, 819, starts to freak out and creates a mess in his cell. Dr.
Zimbardo introduces another variable, a priest to counsel the prisoners. As prisoner 819 finishes
his counseling, the other prisoners were tasked to repeat “Prisoner 819 did a bad thing.” as loud as
they could which he heard from the other room causing a mental breakdown. Dr. Zimbardo
releases him afterwards. Dr. Zimbardo’s girlfriend, Dr. Maslach arrives to be part of the team as a
new prisoner comes in and ends up refusing to cooperate. The prisoners appeal for parole as Jesse
Fletcher interrogates them which he regretted afterwards as he became everything he hated and
actually enjoyed it. As Dr. Maslach is about to leave, the guards pass by with the prisoners
marching in a line with bags over their heads. She insists that as a psychologist, Dr. Zimbardo
could’ve been more considerate to these prisoners who were kids, have never committed a crime
and all came to the parole board so that they would be allowed to leave. She questioned why they
didn’t just quit but realized that they were afraid of Zimbardo. He tries to justify his behavior as
she insists that he needs to fix it. Zimbardo returns to the prison and watches as ‘John Wayne’
harasses an obedient prisoner who follows everything except when it involves profanity. He is
harassed until he finally says something profane and gets punished after swearing. The guards
started harassing the prisoners and forced them to hump each other as one of the prisoners was
tasked to sing ‘Amazing Grace’. At this point, Dr. Zimbardo marches into the prison and concludes
that the experiment is over, after lasting for only 6 days. In this experiment, we need to look at the
social structure. The status of the people involved, as prisoners and guards would help define their
relationships and their roles, which are the behaviors expected of them in the status that they have.
The guards’ roles were figures of authority and the prisoners were under that same authority, with
no freedom or power. They embodied these roles and the guards began abusing the prisoners such
as what those in power would do over those under them. Although it was an experiment, the prison
serves as a coercive organization that they are forced to join as a form of punishment for the
different ‘crimes’ that they were arrested for. It’s an institution that isolates people, labels them as
numbers which as we can see can change their behavior and sense of self. The Thomas theorem
states that situations that are defined as real are real in their consequences. Here we see the many
times that the prisoners, especially Daniel, realized that what was happening wasn’t just an
experiment, it was real. There were consequences to the situation, they were now getting physically
and psychologically abused and even if it was an experiment, it had become real for him.
Goffman’s Dramaturgical Analysis can also be seen such that the whole setting conveys
information, the cells signify that they don’t have their freedom anymore, the presence of the
dresses and the numbers are to strip away their individuality and their identity while the guards
with sunglasses and uniforms shows a united sense of authority and privilege as they were dressed
better than the prisoners. There were moments were some guards looked like they didn’t want to
do what the other guards were doing but as we know from Solomon Asch’s research, many of us
would be willing to compromise our own judgment just to conform to the group. Stanley
Milgram’s research on conformity also shows that people are most likely to follow someone’s lead
even if it meant harming another person which we can see in this film where the guy they call
‘John Wayne’ takes on a leadership role and was one of the first to really take his role as a guard
seriously as the others soon followed his lead. Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory can
be seen when the guard at the shift right after ‘John Wayne’ ends up being abusive as well after
being encouraged by ‘John Wayne’ and his stories of how the prisoners followed him. Once this
guard exhibited deviant behavior and physically assaults one of the prisoners when they weren’t
supposed to be allowed to, disbelief can be seen in the other prisoners’ faces as they all band
together and violently react to it showing that responding to deviance brings people together.