Classic Experiments in

Psychology
 Research in Psychology

• Our knowledge comes from psychological research

• Presented in research papers

• Published in scientific journals

• Research studies can have a tremendous impact on their field

• Some will go on to become ”classic” due to their novelty, the size of their impact and
often controversy
Asch Conformity Experiments
 Asch Conformity Experiments

75% of participants 5% of participants

Conformed at least once Conformed every time
 Asch Conformity Experiments

• Conclusion:
• People seem to conform to a group opinion even if it is inaccurate
• Limitations:
• The task is low-risk
• Participants could’ve been aware of the manipulation
• Could people conform even outside of group-settings, for example, due to the
influence of a singular authority?
Milgram‘s Obedience to Authority Study
Milgram‘s Obedience to Authority Study

65% of participants
Continued to inflict shocks

up to 450V
 Milgram‘s Obedience to Authority Study

• Conclusion:
• Ordinary people can behave in ”evil” ways under the influence of an authority
• Limitations:
• Milgram did not stick to the planned procedure, e.g., he put more pressure on the
teacher(s) than he was supposed to
• Some participants suspected that the learner was not getting real shocks
• Could people behave in “evil” ways even without the presence of an authority, for
example, due to their setting?
 Stanford Prison Experiment

• 2-week prison simulation experiment

• Context: Brutality observed in American prisons
• Aim: To examine whether healthy people would change their behaviour due to their
environment
• Take on the role of a guard/prisoner
• 24 college students assigned the roles of guards and prisoners
• Began with 9 guards and 9 prisoners
• Zimbardo took on the role of “prison superintendent”
 Stanford Prison Experiment

• On the morning of the experiment,

participants were “arrested” by
members of the local police
• Unannounced, authentic
• Participants transferred to prison
• Admitted under humiliating conditions
• Received a uniform
• Assigned number
• Chain on their foot
• Prisoners only addressed by their number
 ”It should be clear that we were trying to create a functional
simulation of a prison – not a literal prison. Real prisoners don't
wear smocks, but they do feel controlled and at times humiliated.
Our goal was to produce similar effects quickly by putting men in
a smock without any underclothes. Indeed, as soon as some of our
prisoners were put in these uniforms, they began to walk and to sit
differently, and to hold themselves differently.

The chain on their foot, which also is uncommon in most prisons,

was used in order to remind prisoners of the oppressiveness of
their environment. Even when prisoners were asleep, they could
not escape the atmosphere of oppression. When a prisoner turned
over, the chain would hit his other foot, waking him up and
reminding him that he was still in prison, unable to escape even in
his dreams.”
 Stanford Prison Experiment

• Guards were not given any training

• Free to create their own rules and
do what they thought was necessary
to maintain order
• Given a uniform, a whistle, a club and reflective
sunglasses
• Prisoners were put in cells in groups of 3
 Stanford Prison Experiment

• Guards quickly started exercising their authority

• Unannounced counts in the middle of the night to familiarise prisoners with their ID
numbers
• Physical punishments (e.g., push-ups)
• Day 2: Prisoners started rebelling and in response, the guards:
• Used a fire extinguisher on the prisoners
• Took the prisoners’ clothes and beds
• Put the leaders of the rebellion in solitary confinement
• Created a ”privilege cell” for prisoners who behaved
• Created mistrust among the prisoners
 Stanford Prison Experiment

• Day 3: One prisoner suffered an emotional breakdown

• Became convinced that they can never leave and told the others
• Released from the experiment
• Rumours of a mass escape
• Guards retaliated through physical punishment
 Stanford Prison Experiment

• Prisoner #819
• Wanted medical attention, taken outside of his cell to rest
• Other prisoners started chanting that Prisoner #819 was “a bad prisoner”
• Prisoners had accepted their roles and forgot that the prison was not real
• Experiment ended after 6 days due to the inhumane conditions created by the
guards
 Stanford Prison Experiment

“To show that normal people could behave in pathological ways even without the
external pressure of an experimenter-authority, my colleagues and I put college
students in a simulated prison setting and observed the power of roles, rules, and
expectations.

Young men selected because they were normal on all the psychological dimensions we
measured became hostile and sadistic, verbally and physically abusing others—if they
enacted the randomly assigned role of all-powerful mock guards. Those randomly
assigned to be mock prisoners suffered emotional breakdowns, irrational thinking, and
behaved self-destructively.

This planned 2-week simulation had to be ended after 6 days because the inhumanity of
the “evil situation” had totally dominated the humanity of the “good” participants.”
Stanford Prison Experiment
 Assignment 5

• Research Paper: Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment (Le Texier, 2019)
• Compares Zimbardo’s accounts of the experiment with information from the
archives of Stanford University
• Task: Read sections from the text and answer questions using what we just learned
and what the text states
• Submit through Edupage before our next lesson