The Prison Experiment And The Abu Ghraib Prison - 999 Words

Kohlberg’s morality theory defines various levels and stages where a person’s morality can be tested on a scale. Reviewing the Stanford prison experiment and the Abu Ghraib prison was interesting. The guards in the Stanford prison experiment reacted differently than each other and showed different levels of morality. In the Abu Ghraib prison, the guards were put in a real life situation where the morals were tested. It was fascinating to see how the two different scenarios had similar behaviors. The guards had different morality levels that varied by how the prisoners acted towards the guards. At the start of the experiment, no guards were given orders on how to maintain the jail and prisoners. Going into the experiment many guards had the incentive of Level 2-Stage 4, because they wanted to have rules to promote order within the prison. For an example of this, guards had lineups for the prisoners to familiarize their new number identities. When the prisoners did not follow these rules, the guards shifted levels. At first it started at Level 1-Stage 1, because the prisoners only broke minor rules, like talking back to the guards or not taking the lineups seriously. Therefore, guards served minor punishment such as making the prisoners do pushups. Rules were broken more severely which led to more severe punishment. The guards had to punish the prisoners, because on the second day they staged a rebellion in which they locked themselves in their cells. The level ofShow MoreRelatedAbu Ghraib : The Stanford Prison Experiment1149 Words   |  5 PagesAbu Ghraib: The Stanford Prison Experiment in a Combat Zone Gilman F Cooper Creighton University ROTC  The Abu Ghraib torture scandal left a large blemish on the occupation of Iraq and George Bush’s War on terror. As stories of the torture happening in the Abu Ghraib prison began circulating, American citizens had trouble comprehending the acts of evil their soldiers had committed on Iraqis. Some began to see a correlation between Abu Ghraib and the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. Though theRead MoreAbu Ghraib Prison Scandal Essay1141 Words   |  5 PagesIn â€Å"The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism,† Marianne Szegedy-Maszak informs the reader of the situation United States guards caused against Iraqi detainees. Under Bush’s presidency, United States soldiers brought physical abuse and humiliation upon the Abu Ghraib Prison. Szegedy-Maszak briefly analyzes the situation and compares the abuse to further scientific experiments in which test obedience. One of the experiments was the topic of another article titled, â€Å"The Stanford Prison Exper imentRead MoreWhat Brings Out The Worst Of Good People?911 Words   |  4 PagesZimbardo’s detailed account of the Stanford Prison Experiment and its importance to the abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison by American soldiers. Zimbardo uses the prison experiment to illustrate the dangers of the situation of turning people evil. Zimbardo reflects on similarities between the Stanford experiment and Abu Ghraib. Before discussing the situational forces, one must understand the history, and the living conditions in the Abu Ghraib prison. The Abu Ghraib prison was the place where Saddam HusseinRead MoreWhat Can Social Psychology Teach Us About What Happened At Abu Ghraib? Essay1023 Words   |  5 PagesWhat can social psychology teach us about what happened at Abu Ghraib? By Mandy Stead During the Iraq war that between 2003 and 2006, the united states army committed a series of human rights violations against prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Bagdad. The violations included murder, sexual and physical abuse, rape, torturer, sodomy, humiliating and dehumanizing prisoners. In 2004 the abuse that was carried out was exposed by the publication of images that were taken by the soldiers that carriedRead MoreWhy Do Good People Do Bad Things779 Words   |  4 Pagesabout the torturing of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. I will also write about the Stanley Milgrim Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment. All of these relate to one of the topics we have covered this term. There is an excellent example of uniforms influencing power in the Stanford Prison experiment which took place in1971, it was lead by Prof Zimbardo1 (see footnote) in which a group of students were selected to act as prison guards and prisoners in a ‘fake’ prison. Even though the students who wereRead MoreSocial Psychologist Philip Zimbardo s Prison Experiment And Stanley Milgram s Obedience923 Words   |  4 Pagesabusing Iraqi prisoners held at the Abu Ghraib prison located in Bagdad. Looking at the photos that was surfaced, it looks strikingly familiar to those in the Stanford prison experiment that was done many years ago. The prisoners had bags over their heads and were subjected to all kinds of sexual and inhumane humiliation. The military went on the defence saying â€Å"those officers were a few bad apples.† To understand why the military soldiers at the Abu Grahib prison abused the Iraqi prisoners, we needRead MoreObedience to Authority Essay1331 Words   |  6 Pagesnot always prevail with the best outcomes. The following experiments and real life events all reflect that human beings succumb to obedience even when common sense tells them that what they are doing is wrong. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, Milgram’s electric shock study, and the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib are reflections on the outcome of obeying a command regardless of the results and why someone would do so. An experiment by Zimbardo provided insight on how a regular person changesRead MoreIs Abu Ghraib : How Good People Turn Evil?945 Words   |  4 PagesSocial Psychology Week 8 For this week’s discussion I was given, Genocide to Abu Ghraib: How good people turn evil. Abu Ghraib prison was a US Army detention center for captured Iraqis from 2003 to 2006. An investigation into the treatment of detainees at the prison was started by the unearthing of graphic photos showing guards abusing detainees in 2003. According to Fiske et al., (2010), aggression is generally defined as any behavior that is intended to harm another person who does not want toRead MoreCan Torture Ever Be Justified?1596 Words   |  6 Pagesdetainees by the United States have been covered in the media all over the world. The public first learned about the horrific actions of the United States when the truths of Abu Ghraib surfaced. Most Americans are shocked by those horrendous and disturbing photographs of the abuse of prisoners broadcasted. When the humiliation of Abu Ghraib surfaced, the US government argued that it was solely the work of a couple soldiers. However, the truth is that prisoner abuses have expanded with the soldiers knowingRead MoreDr. Zimbardo s The Lucifer Effect 1491 Words   |  6 Pageswere he personally experienced the darker side of human nature, which ultimately motivated him to devote his career to understand the psychology of evil. In 1971, Dr. Zimbardo as a young psychologist at Stanford University, CA conducted an experiment on prison behavior where normal, run of the mill liberal undergraduate students volunteers were divided into two groups, ‘prisoners’ and ‘guards’. Even though students knew, that it was an artificial situation, the guards, assumed a sense of power and