The Stanford Experience Essay Example

The Stanford Experience Essay Criminal justice is a system at which authorities use to   maintain social order, control crimes and punish those who violate laws. The prison guards and the prison itself play an intertwined role in creating punishment to those who have committed a behavior that is not morally accepted. And often, experiences insider a jail will create severe effects to those who have been imprisoned, and may also bring about changes in the behavior of the jail guard himself.The changes in the behavior and compliance of the jail guards and the prisoners and how the feeling of containment in a prison cell has drastically developed is discovered in the Stanford Prison Experiment wherein 18 college boys were taken to play the roles of nine guards and   nine prisoners. The changes happened fast that the experiment had to be cut at the sixth day rather than the original two-week experiment.In doing such a delicate experiment that involves the feelings of the subjects, it must be provided that the peo ple behind the experiment employs the scientific principles on experiment.On empiricism, the experiment has succeeded in terms of making the prisoners and the guards feel that they are indeed prisoners in real life. the situation created for both objects were too realistic that in such a short time, the prisoners and the guards developed the sense of being a real prison and a real guard who ought to do their jobs in maintaining order in the jail. They have also consumed the role play and later on developed the real anguish that real prisoners feel, and the jail guards on their part have felt their power incontrollable that they tend to abuse the authority they hold just like real prison guards do. On objectivity, the first part of selection was purely objective as the subjects were chosen to play the role of either a prisoner or a guard randomly through a toss coin. However, as the experiment progressed, the participants suffered the feeling of subjectivity towards their roles. This subjectivity being an offset of empathy towards the role they play.They have so consumed that they have absorbed the real persona of the role they play. Prisoners felt that they are really prisoners and the guards responded the way that a real jail guard would have responded during the activity. On skepticism, though the researchers were aware of the situation, they themselves were really surprised of the outcome of the project. A proof of this was the original two-week plan being cut short to barely a week because of the heightened emotions that surged through out the experiment. On ethical neutrality, as the subjects were chosen randomly, they were able to let them play the role without biases towards the role. As for the researchers side, during the whole experiment, they were feeling as if they were jail superintendents and officer rather than being a doctor studying the psychological effects of imprisonment.Thus I believe that the experiment has passed the standards for ethica l neutrality. On parsimony, I believe that the experiment has used the most resources they could at the least amount. They have used minimal resources that only served as improvised for the real situation they wanted to role-play but resulted a highly accurate turn outs with minimal complex relations. On determinism, every action done by either side was responded by another act from the other side. Meaning, the subjects developed a system of mechanisms intended to correspond to a situation that aroused within the experiment. On publication, as can be viewed in the website, it served as a reflective account of how the experiment turned out. The proper documentation of the experiment made it possible for people to view and assess the development and success or failure of the experiment. (Fitzgerald, pp 36-42)Given these aspects, I think that the experiment has complied well in the scientific principles of research. They were able to successfully extract real facts and real life anguis h of prisoners and jail guards. They were able to fully portray the situation of real life prison experiences in the least controlled way possible to them that adds to the credibility of the experiment. A proof of this is the way that outsiders (for the purpose of the experiment) reacted upon seeing the situation of the subjects inside the jail. They too, developed the feeling that indeed, their sons have become real prisoners.Moreover, on the basis of research methodology and ethical standards, every experiment must maintain ethical standards. The researcher must avoid giving moral judgments that may result to being bias.On anonymity and confidentiality, the experiment have used numbers instead of names for two purposes: one is to strip the prisoners their identity and start to succumb to the emotions of being a real prisoner, and the other is to keep their identity out from the public, that only the researchers know the real identity of their subjects. On risk and voluntary inform ed consent, the subjects of the trial went through a procedure of â€Å"audition† for the â€Å"role†. The researchers posted an ad to attract possible subjects for the experiment. And when these college people came, they went though a series of testing to ensure that they know what they were doing and they were prepared for the hazards that being a subject of the experiment entailed. On deception in research, I think that the experiment did not employ such, as the subjects of the experiment were given details of what the experiment is trying to prove. Before hand, the subjects were briefed of the set up that they had to go through for the sake of the experiment. On sharing the results and benefits of research, at the end of the experiment when they had to cut the process on the sixth day, the researchers held encounter sessions with the subjects to see how the experiment changed their feelings and how the situation affected them. (Fitzgerald, pp 48-53)Given these fact s, I think that the study has complied with the ethical standards, needed to perform a research that shall protect the subjects. Although the subjects particularly the prisoners suffered high level of anxiety, they were properly guided before the start of the experiment. They were paid for their participation and after the experiment they were given encounter sessions to permit the subjects to voice out their opinions regarding the experiment and to express the suppressed emotions they had during the experiment.Though the sample population used was remarkably small, the experiment was still able to create a picture of what happens in real life prisons. It served as a small-scale description of the real situation in prisons wherein prisoners suffer from extreme anxiety and unrest inside prisons, while jail guards on the other hand develop an extreme sense of authority which they abuse and in turn, alters their personality. The results are reflective of the situation in prisons like A ttica, wherein the demands of the prisoners is just to simply treat them as humans. The experiment has proven how prisons dehumanize prisoners, how institutions like this who are supposed to teach law violators how to have human feelings have devoid them of this basic principle.The experiment is now used as basis for the current situation in Iraq, and how political prisoners are being treated, and also on certain areas wherein prisoners are being humiliated and devoid of their rights.The experiment is based on an observational, cohort study, wherein randomly selected individuals are placed on a situation which is totally new to all of the subjects, and in the process are put under keen observation to assess how the subjects have changed according to the situation that they were put in. The factors being observed are about the changes that the groups may develop in the course of the experiment.As stated in the experiment, the individuals chosen to become as subjects of the experiment were chosen among many other who wanted to take the role after being subjected to several mental questionings. After they were chosen, two groups were made, nine per group to become prisoners and guards. No control variable or interference from the investigators was employed. Only the real experiences inside the set-up jail was being taken accounted for. The experiment however, yielded results that though were expected, it came in such a short time. In two days, barely even half of the experiment, the two groups: guards and prisoners, have developed as sense of reality towards their situation. The guards have acted as real guards, trying to suppress the prisoners and developed a sense of abuse with the authority given to them. On the other hand, the prisoners acted and felt as prisoners, they were stripped off their true identity and absorbed the anxiety and anguish of being left in containment, with pressure and time distorting factors being prevalent in the activity.The success o f the experiment in depicting real life situation in prisons can serve as a basis to assess abuse of power against prisoners and a how a system for reformation can be made to emancipate the conditions of prisoners and reprimand the authorities who abuse their powers inside prison grounds. The effect of the experiment was so abrupt that in a mere six days, ordinary college students were transformed into their not usual characteristics (Zimbardo). With this in mind, we could just imagine how real life prisoners have been suffering from real life guards who have fully absorbed their role as â€Å"agents of criminal justice.†Thus the challenge lies on how to change this system. A change in system that shall eliminate the notion of prisons as hell, and make it a place that is conducive for change and remorse.The experiment has gone through the process and has proven the basis of their thesis, that in real life, prisons do not act as a vehicle for change. This experiment serve as w ake up calls for those in authority to assess their system and formulate policies that shall eliminate abuse of authority and promote the welfare and right of prisoners.