After studying the Stanford Prison experiment, I had a hard
time trying to make up my mind as to whether I thought this experiment was
ethical or not. This experiment was very controversial and had many negative
outcomes. It had permanent emotional and psychological effects on the subjects
of the experiment. This led me to think that it was an unethical experiment.
However, I started to look at it from a symbolic interactionalism point of view.
This theory looks at everything at a micro level and focuses on the
interactions between people. I do not think that Dr. Zimbardo meant to cause
this type of harm to the subjects of his experiment. He did know that it could
be a tough situation for the subjects that were chosen to be prisoners, but he
never thought the experiment was going to turn out the way that it did. I think
that Dr. Zimbardo simply got caught up in the experiment, as many of the
subjects did as well, and this caused him to lose touch with reality as it was
occurring. When his girlfriend told him that he had changed in a negative way,
he finally realized the severity of the study that he was doing. He ended the
experiment after 6 days. Because of this, I do think that the Stanford Prison
experiment was ethical. However, given the way the experiment turned out, I
think it would be unethical for any other psychologist or sociologist to try
and repeat this experiment.
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI felt about this experiment the same way you do. I was also unsure as to whether it was ethical or unethical. I believe the experiment started out as an ethical experiment because they all knew what they were signing up for. I think it became unethical when the "guards" began abusing their power. When they began to punish the "inmates" cruelly is when the experiment should have been stopped, but it wasn't. This torture continued before it was finally stopped. I believe it was ethical and unethical.
I completely agree that the experiment became unethical as it went on. However, I don't think that the entire experiment can be labeled as being unethical because it was not unethical when it began.
DeleteI totally agree 100%
ReplyDeleteJennifer: There was a concern about the ethics of this study because of how the subjects were treated. One of the other students commented that sometimes you have to cause a certain amount of discomfort in order to get significant research findings. You did very good work here. Richard Bobys
ReplyDelete