Before Class:

I did not have much knowledge of this experiment before watching the video, but once I did watch I was very taken back on how abusive the prison guards were to the prisoners of the experiment. I noticed that at the beginning of the experiment it seemed that the participants were fine with their roles and their seemed to be a fairness with the guards. Phillip Zimbardo the man who conducted this experiment had planned for this prison experiment to last for two weeks, but as the prison guards began to treat the prisoners poorly the experiment seemed to start crumbling. The prison guards began to dehumanize the prisoners through various actions. These actions include humiliating and abusing prisoners for not doing what they said. I was surprised to learn that because of this experiment the prisoners started to become more submissive to the guards and their orders no matter how humiliating it got. What also surprised me was that the prisoners had to be reminded this was an experiment truly shocked me. The prisoners were allowed to leave whenever they wanted to yet the prisoners were so distraught mentally and abused that the prisoners actually felt like they were actual prisoners convicted of a crime. There were good prison guards and bad ones, but when the good prison guards would see the bad prison guards being abusive to the prisoners they did not do anything. I wonder if this is how it really is in real prisons as well for certain guards. The experiment was cut short after six days because of how cruel the prisoners were getting treated.

After Class:

I apologize I do not have many notes because I showed up late due to not being able to sleep. I know this is not an excuse, but I just didn’t have good day the day before so please do not kill me with grading from my after class notes unless you see its necessary. I will be better for the future.

The experiment was possibly funded by the US Navy to see how people would conform to a given role.

When parents of the prisoners showed up for visitation day the guards tried making the living conditions seem happy and fine. They did this by playing music over the intercom as well as cleaning.

The experiment was not to see how prisoners would act, but the how the guards would act when given a role of power over someone or people. This also in return showed Zimbardo the true human nature of people who are given power over other people.