Personality Characteristics Of Guards And Prisoners

Haney, Banks and Zimbardo (1973) were fascinated as to why people do bad things. Convinced the answer was attributed to bad environments corrupting good individuals, Haney et al. (1973) created a prison simulation to explore Zimbardo’s hypothesis that personality characteristics of guards and prisoners underlie aggressive behaviour in prisons. A newspaper advertisement asking for volunteers to participate in a two week study examining prison life, was used to recruit twenty-four participants, who were assigned randomly the role of prisoner or guard. Prisoners were arrested, referred to by identification numbers, dehumanised and made to wear identical clothing (nylon cap, a smock); whilst the guards wore khaki shirts and trousers and were given black sunglasses. Haney et al., (1973) told participants physical misconduct was prohibited; claiming this was the only direction participants were given regarding how they should behave. The SPE outcome had a profound effect on social psychology, influencing our understanding of the power of situations and role conformity. Days into the experiment, prisoners expressed severe anxiety and distress; whilst a third of guards relished in their authority, tormenting prisoners (Haney et al., 1973). Zimbardo concluded ordinary people became tormenters when placed in a situation giving them authority to do so; suggesting individuals readily conform to roles they are expected to play. Participants were so absorbed into their given roles thatShow MoreRelatedThe Field Of Social Psychology1378 Words   |  6 PagesPhilip Zimbardo’s study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison. His research was conducted along with two of his graduate assistants by the name of Craig Haney and Curtis Banks. Their research was done in 1971. 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