When people are stripped of their liberties, put in a submissive role, and confined in close quarters it negatively affects both their mind and body, as an experiment at Stanford University displayed. .
Phillip K. Zimbardo, a psychology professor, conducted what is called the Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo's main focus was to observe the process that people go through when they are incarcerated and forced into obedience. .
Zimbardo placed an advertisement in a local newspaper that read:.
Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. .
$15 per day for 1-2 weeks beginning Aug. 14. For further information.
& applications, come to Room 248, Jordan Hall, Stanford U.
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Zimbardo and his staff hand selected twenty-one college males out of the 75 that responded to the ad that would become a prison guard or prisoner in the experiment. .
On the first day of the experiment police cars stormed through campus arresting all of the prisoners. They were slammed in police cars and driven to "Stanford County Prison" that was actually constructed in the basement of Stanford University's psychology building. Classrooms and offices were converted into small jail cells that were equipped with cameras and recording devices for observation. There was also a prison yard were prisoners could enjoy limited sunlight. A room designated for solitary confinement was labeled "The Hole". The experimenters tried to make this mock prison as close to the real thing as possible.
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Each prisoner was fingerprinted and issued clothes, identification numbers,.
bedding, soap, and a towel. They were also strip searched and humiliated in front of the other prisoners.
The guards at "Stanford County Prison" were issued identical khaki uniforms and silver shaded sunglasses that prohibited them from making any eye contact with the prisoners.
