Zimbardo Experiment (Prison Guards) Video Response

First read topic : Please view the “ Zimbardo Experiment” video found here: https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=L_LKzEqlPto , and answer both of the following : Discussion Question s : 1. The young men in Zimbardo’s experiment agreed to partic ipate in the study and were compensated as agreed upon. What other responsibilities, if any, do researchers have to their subjects ? 2. What other ways could the information garnered in the study have been obtained ? State ve ry specific reasons and exa mples from the film for your answers. Second: read my response: Responsibilities researchers have to their subjects In the case of research, researchers have many responsibilities for their subjects. The first one is compensating them for taking part and in this case, it was done. Secondly, researchers should ensure that their subjects are not subjected to harsh environments. Harsh environment refers to insults, harassment, petty orders, mistreatment, irritating situations and boring duties. They should also ensure good relationships. They have to recognize their subjects’ feelings and take appropriate action to control the rising conditions. Researchers should always be themselves and should not be taken, to extent that they are not themselves, as in the case of Zimbardo. Ethical issues should be considered regardless of the nature of the study. Researchers have the responsibility of making their subjects feel useful and meaningful in the study. They should identify problems, such as when the research is affecting their subjects adversely. They should come up with solutions to these problems or terminate the research. It is also essential for them to take advice from observers on matters to do with their subjects. Other ways information garnered in study could have been obtained Information got from this research study could have been collected by other means. Zimbardo should have considered observation. Here he was to take observations on prisoners. Most likely in prison. Zimbardo could also have employed interviews. He was to interview the prisoners. Having a discussion with subjects could have also gathered information. References to inmates’ record on misconduct while in prison could have yielded good results. Lastly, prisoners are people like others, therefore, what can affect individuals in a free environment can affect prisoners in prison. Thus, there was no need for prison environment for this study. Third: read peer response: The researchers have the responsibility that no harm is done to the test subjects. In the video Zimbardo states that the prison guards are not allowed in any way to harm the prisoners physically but what he did not specify was that the guards should not do anything to torture and torment the prisoners mentally as what was the obvious case in this circumstance. The guards openly degraded the prisoners by making them do push-ups while singing, interrupted their sleep schedule for no reason other than to show dominance, hurled insults at them, and also put them a in what they called “solitary” which was a room with no light. It is also the responsibility of the researchers to not allow any outside factors that may affect the outcome of the experiment. I found it interesting that the “John Wayne” guard at the end of the experiment openly admitted that he was doing his own “little experiments” as to see what he could get away with and by playing a role that he modeled after a character in a movie called “Cool Hand Luke”. This seemed obvious to me from the little actual footage we saw because he was obviously speaking in an accent and using terminology that was obviously not his own. This should have been stopped immediately as it was obviously affecting the experiment. Which brings me to my next point of what the researchers should be responsible for; they should not play an active role in the experiment as Zimbardo did. As Zimbardo stated at the end of the video, him playing the role of the prison superintendent affected his decision making during the experiment. It most obviously affected him when prisoner 8612 wanted to leave and Zimbardo treated him more like he would be a “prison snitch” than as an actual test subject. Zimbardo himself said that he became more about being a prison superintendent than a scientist. When it comes to the question “What other ways the information garnered in this study could have been obtained?” I find that a difficult question to answer. My first thought is that one could just do the research in an actual prison, where a researcher could be easily impartial and stay completely out of the study. It would also use real-life prisoners and guards instead of volunteers. However this would no longer be an experiment and instead would be a study as the researchers would no longer have any control over the situations. My honest opinion is that it would be extremely difficult to have an experiment such as this that did not become affected by power corrupting the test subjects, it would have to follow the strictest of ethical guidelines and I am not sure if it is possible to do with such an experiment. I did begin to think however that maybe the experiment was not a failure as I previously thought, but maybe it was a success in the way that it shows how people are corrupted by power and how we all can turn into the “John Wayne” guard if given the right circumstances. Step four: You write what you agree with/disagree, like/dislike, if you have any questions ask them, and add any other info if needed. Just make sure your post is on the same state of mind as mine is.