The Relevance of the Stanford Prison Film

The Stanford prison film is one of the most of the entertaining film genre even produced. In regards to its synopsis, a professor by the name Philip Zimbardo together with other research specialist (college students) in conjunction with some of the security guards in the prison agrees to conduct a psychological experiment with the main intention of assessing the perceived psychological results of perceived power that stressing on the struggle between prison guards and detainees (Zimbardo, 2015). Zimbardo as the main starring selects fifteen prison participants to take part in the experiment which as to take place for fourteen days.  The professor agrees to pay each participant $15 per day. The films show circumstances where Zimbardo and the college students tend to be abusive on how they are handling their subjects. The experiment end up being called off because some of the students terminated their contract due to psychological meltdowns. Christina Maslach as the girlfriend to Zimbardo speaks sense to him about the negative nature of the experiment and finally professor decides to end the experiment on the sixth of the study this means the experiment did not succeed.

From the critical perspective, the experiment carried out by Professor Zimbardo in the experiment seen in the movie was unethical and it deserved to be scrapped off because it abused the rights of the prisoners for example upon    arriving in the prison they forced to remove their clothes rendering them naked and their personal possessions taken away and numbers were also assigned to them for easy identification (Carey, 2018). The prisoners were also mistreated for instance, they were woken in the early in the morning by blasting whistle and this traumatized some of the participants in the experiment.  All these processes were harmful and tainted the reputation of both the professors and the subjects in the research. It must also be understood that the clothes given to them were rugs and they had no underclothes hence making the whole process to be pure sham.

In a fundamental sense, the anthropologies could have carried the psychological experiment in a sober and ethical manner for example, the subjects (prison participants) were not supposed to be subjected under any form of violence, their privacy were to be respected in that they were supposed to be given proper clothing and good shelter as opposed to what has been viewed in the film (Smiith, 2003).  The research specialists could have shown moderation on how they deal with the subjects even if they expressed any form of indiscipline. They were also to be consulted first prior to the research experiment. This could have provided the opportune moment for either the subjects to decide whether to take part or to avoid the experiment completely.

There are several changes that have made regarding the experiments with human beings for instance; all the process of the whole experiment must be effectively explained to the human participants. They are also allowed to decline from taking part in the study in case they feel uncomfortable (Ossola, 2016). Human participants in experiment project must not be subjected in any harm and they are also allowed to report to the authority in case they were abused during the research session. The participants are given maximum confidentiality and privacy in that they are not forced to discuss their sensitive issues or even forced into situations that will automatically stimulate them to disclose their secrets.

In conclusion, the Stanford film depicts some of the barbaric activities carried by the research professional in the name of finding real results on various issues. It is unethical to cause harm to the subjects because posing danger to danger to them will lead to erroneous results. They should be provide with an enabling environment there is freedom of expression and the right to have a say on how the some of the processes would be carried.

 

Carey, B. (2018). sychology Itself Is Under Scrutiny. New York Times , 1-4.

Ossola, A. (2016). The Rules For How We Can Experiment On Humans Might Soon Change. Vicative , 1-5.

Smiith, D. (2003). Five principles for research ethics. American Psychological Association , 1-56.

Zimbardo, P. (Director). (2015). The Stanfod Prison [Motion Picture].

 

 

Do you need high quality Custom Essay Writing Services?

Custom Essay writing Service