The Psychological Impact Of Imprisonment For Two Weeks

â€Å"What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Do the people overwhelm the evil or does the evil of the situation overwhelm the good people?† Psychologist Philip Zimbardo proves throughout his research that when people are put into certain roles they feel a need to conform to that role. Everyone can harbour an evil side of their personality but it takes a certain environment or circumstance to bring it out. In a prison, will a guard abuse their power? Or will a prisoner have a mental breakdown? In the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo saw that when â€Å"normal† people are given too much power, they can transform into harsh oppressors within days. Although the main intent of the experiment was to test the psychological impact of imprisonment for two weeks, the findings from this experiment were so much more: with the guards immediate gain of power and social ranking and the prisoners humiliation and dehumanization, the experiment proved that environm ent is the main factor in the development of corruption and change in character of both guards and prisoners. Since then Philip Zimbardo has become the president of the Heroic Imagination Project. This organization provides tools and strategies to help individuals take positive action at crucial moments in their lives. Zimbardo also wrote a book on his psychological findings called The Lucifer Effect. He explains his experiment and also brings into it the abuse at Abu Ghraib and another famous study called the MilgramShow MoreRelatedThe Legend Of Colton H. Bryant By Alexandra Fuller1692 Words   |  7 Pagesfrom Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. 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Describing the study briefly 24 undergraduates with no criminal and psychological record were chosen for the research to play the roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of Stanford UniversityRead MoreThe Limitations Of Male Prison Suicide2431 Words   |  10 Pagesthe restrictive prison regime, isolation, and psychiatric illnesses among other factors. Factors that were continuously associated with suicide in prisons among early stage and long term male prisoners highlighted by the current study included psychological factors and substance abuse as the most significant inflictions. Adjustment to prison regime, entrapment and poor social and family support complete the list of major contributory factors to male prison suicides. The only differences between theRead MoreThe Effects Of Parental Incarceration On Children3942 Words   |  16 Pagesto skip school (Tinerney, Grossman Resch, (1995). 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This experiment is a psychological research of the following individual and group processes: †¢ human reaction to the personal restraint and restraint of liberty †¢ role behavior in the situation of imprisonment †¢ behavior of people caught up in the extreme conditions †¢ the impact of imposed social roles on behavior †¢ the processes of group dynamics and social influence