The Prison Guard and the Prisoner

If you were a guard, what type of guard would you have become? How sure are you?

If I am a guard, I think I am a typical guard – undergone training and formal education, armed with the principles of guarding, and dedicated in doing my task. But in relation to the experiment, I am not quite sure if I will still be the same guard in which I am before. Considering the environment I am in, I think I will learn to adapt and develop some new behaviors in order to cope up with the scenario. I might turn into someone that even my real self will not recognize.

If you were a prisoner, would you have been able to endure the experience? What would you have done differently than those subjects did? If you were imprisoned in a "real" prison for five years or more, could you take it?

Placing myself in that particular situation is no easy job. I will not endure the experience. As a prisoner, I believe I will also do the same things that the subjects did – such as being rebellious or appear nice, acting sick and suffering into psychological disturbance, etc. but it will be more intense. I might lose my proper disposition. For instance I will be imprisoned for five years or more, I will not endure the experience if the same scenario as the experiment will occur in my case. But if the prison is a humane place for realization and renewal for good, I believe I will try my best to look at the positive side of prison and I will be the best ex-convict ever.

Moving beyond physical prisons built of steel and concrete, what psychological prisons do we create for ourselves and others? If prisons are seen as forms of control which limit individual freedom, how do they differ from the prisons we create through racism, sexism, ageism, poverty, and other social institutions? Extend your discussion to focus on:

The silent prison of shyness, in which the shy person is simultaneously his or her own guard and prisoner

Aside from the presence of cells, there are also other cells we create in ourselves. Sometimes we imprison ourselves to the reality. We limit our horizons without even thinking or trying to look for possible escape. I adhere that prisons are actually forms of control and there is no difference from the limitations we hold with regards to racism, sexism, ageism, etc. Instead, we often intensify the control we have that makes it harder to deal with. The treatment we see in real prisons is as cruel as the treatment other people have in dealing with race, gender, etc. In other cases, it is even more inconsiderate and worse.

In connection to the prison we create among ourselves, shyness is considered as one. As implied, a shy person is the prisoner and the own guard of his/her self. It is because shy people control themselves and limit the freedom they posses. They do not want to break out of their shells and exposed themselves. This makes them as free and living individuals but imprisoned in their own persona and identity.

How do the ethical dilemmas in this research compare with the ethical issues raised by Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments? Would it be better if these studies had never been done?

Milgram’s obedience experiments and Stanford Prison Experiment are similar in terms of the ethical issues in scientific experimentation such as human rights violation and repression of freedom. The participants of these experiments both suffered from different stressors affecting their emotions, bodies, and the manner in which they think. However, I believe it is still imperative that these studies are done in order to study and provide knowledge about the reality of imprisonment and the facts behind those bars. Now, the findings obtained serve as crucial elements in creating laws and policies to be implemented in prisons worldwide. Aside from this, the contribution of these studies in the field of psychology is magnanimous.

Reference

Blass, T. (2000). Obedience to Authority: Current Perspectives on the Milgram

Paradigm. Mahwah, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 9.

Stanford Prison Experiment: A Simulation Study of the Psychology of

Imprisonment. Retrieved January 25, 2006 from www.prisonexp.org.

Wortley, R. (2002). Situational Prison Control: Crime Prevention in Correctional

Institutions. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 23.