09 October, 2016. Ethical Issues with the Experiment

     The Stanford Prison Experiment has a lot of criticism about weather or not it was done ethically or not. "The ethics of the Stanford Prison Experiment have long been called into question, and, certainly, without stricter controls this experiment would not be sanctioned today; it could pose a genuine risk to people disposed towards mental and emotional imbalances." (Shuttleworth). While most of the experiment followed ethical guidelines and was run morally, there was some issues that can be questioned. Participants did fill out an informed consent form, but some information was left out on parts of the form. An informed consent form includes various parts to it, such as the purpose of the study, potential risks or benefits, and procedure of the study. The participants that were selected to be prisoners were arrested at their homes and strip searched when they got to the prison. The consent form did not list this part of the study. It was ethically wrong to withhold information about what the participants were going to endure. 


     Psychological or physical harm that can be caused during an experiment can also be considered to be very unethical in human experiments. There was no way to expect psychological effects during the study, but participants did have psychological breakdowns that could have caused long-term effects. There was no long-term effects that had occurred but there were six participants that had showed signs of psychological stress that involved screaming, crying, and psychosomatic rashes. Participants were unaware that the study would have caused such distress and they were not protected form this harm. As an experimenter, Zimbardo, should have ended the study as soon as the first participant showed psychological distress or potential physical harm. The experiment did end after six days instead of the fourteen expected days, but the first participant to show signs of distress began only after thirty-six hours."Participants playing the role of prisoners were not protected from psychological harm, experiencing incidents of humiliation and distress. For example, one prisoner had to be released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying and anger." (Mcleod). There was also a "riot" that occurred, which could have ended in an extreme physical altercation. Ethically, it was wrong to continue the study, because participants were being put into a dangerous environment, which could have resulted in severe psychological issues.

      The study has been evaluated by many people and today is still criticized for ethical concerns. It has also led to a need for ethical guidelines, which is now enforced by the American Psychology Association. Experiments must now get an approval from an Institutional Review Board. The IRB looks into the experiment as a whole and decides if it can be done ethically. If the Stanford Prison Experiment was brought to the IRB today, then it would altered in a way that it could be done ethically or it would be completely denied.


References:

 Shuttleworth, Martyn. "Stanford Prison Experiment - Roles Define Your Behavior." Stanford Prison

      Experiment - Roles Define Your Behavior. Explorable.com, 22 June 2008. Web. 07 Oct. 2016. 

McLeod, Saul. "Stanford Prison Experiment." Simply Psychology. N.p., 24 Sept. 2016. Web. 07 Oct.
      2016.

Breil, Jeff. Plous, Scott. Jensenius, David. "Prisonexp.org." Stanford Prison Experiment. Social                           Psychology Network, 2015. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.