Stanford Prison Experiment Group Questions

In a group of _____, answer the following questions as a writing prompt. Each person should write in his/her composition book. Type up your answers. Title your paper “Stanford Prison Experiment” Group Questions. Submit a Word document containing your answers to the following questions via turnitin by Tuesday, 8/30 at 11 pm. While you may base your answers on the work you did with your group, I will be grading you individually. You should polish/improve upon what you came up with as a group.

1. Was Zimbardo biased in some way? In other words, did he look at the evidence produced by his experiment with an open mind or did he have preconceived ideas that clouded his analysis? Reread his Introduction (1-4) and think especially about the following sentence:

“The dispositional hypothesis has been embraced by the proponents of the prison status quo (blaming conditions on the evil in the prisoners), as well as by its critics (attributing the evil to guards and staff with their evil motives and deficient personality structures). (3)”

2. Zimbardo decided to select subjects for his study that were “normal-average.” Half were then assigned the role of prisoner and the other half the role of guard. Neither group had “any history of crime, emotional disability, physical handicap or even intellectual or social disadvantage” (3)? Why did Zimbardo want to choose subjects who all fit a certain profile? How might the selection of “normal-average” people be a problem in a study about prisons?

3. Zimbardo says that the guards were given “minimal guidelines for what it meant to be a guard.” He didn’t want them to merely follow instructions; he wanted to see “a genuine reaction to the experimental prison situation.” How does Zimbardo defend the reality of the simulation? Reread pages 11-13 and summarize one point he makes in defense of the experiment. Evaluate the point you chose. Does Zimbardo present persuasive evidence with this point? Does he persuade you to believe the prisoners and guards had a genuine reaction or were they in some way merely following instructions?

4. Do the same as above, but summarize a different point that Zimbardo makes in defense of the experiment on pages 11-13.

5. Do you find any other part of Zimbardo’s experiment or his conclusions to be problematic? Quote or paraphrase the part of the text where you think Zimbardo’s methods and/or logic may not be completely sound. Explain the problem.

6. Read “The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment.” Answer the following:

a) According to Konnikova, how were the guards encouraged to perform?

b) Why was the newspaper ad problematic?

c) How did the BBC prison study differ from the Stanford Prison Experiment? Why were the results so different?

d) According to Konnikova, what is the real lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

e) How did your group’s answers to 1-5 compare to Konnikova’s analysis? Did you catch some of the same problems that she did? Did she not address a problem that you saw?