The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted at Stanford University, located in California. The study was done to determine the psychology behind prisoners and the guards who help control them. One of the questions asked at the beginning of the experiment was whether the students chosen to participate in the experiment would end up becoming prisoners or guards, or would they resist. In other words, would the simulation force subjects to assume the submissive and dominant roles of prisoner and guard in this small-scale simulation? The answer; absolutely.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This experiment not only forced the subjects into their predetermined roles, but it also sent them to extremes of the spectrum. The "prisoners" found themselves mentally broken, depressed and unable to control their emotions, often behaving towards guards as if they were actually prisoners. The "guards" became incredibly cruel and began requiring the "prisoners" to perform menial tasks until they became more submissive. The simulation was initially scheduled to last 14 days, but after only 6 days, the prisoners all demanded to be let out of the simulation. because they mentally could no longer tolerate these conditions. Although the experiment was canceled prematurely, it was considered a huge success by psychologists and a huge failure by scientists. Part of the reason the experiment failed so quickly was that the psychologist who ran the experiment, Phillip Zimbardo, also acted as head guard. For this simulation to be successful, Zimbardo would have had to take an observer role and purely observe rather than join in the sadistic behavior of the guards. The experiment answered many questions that psychologists had about prison and the prisoner/guard relationship. They learned that prison, in its most basic form of confinement, was often too much for a normal person. They also learned that while guards are obviously not supposed to torture or demean prisoners, they did so simply because the position of power they are in gives them that ability. This proved that those in power will abuse that power every time. The simulation further led psychologists to understand the similarities in the power struggle between the prisoner/guardian relationship and the submissive/dominant relationship. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a personalized essay similar to the question of whether a person has the choice to commit suicide or shoot another person they don't know; they will almost always choose someone else for the sake of self-preservation. The experiment showed how the dark and inhuman side of people begins to manifest when tested. Within a day, the prisoners began to feel depressed and suffered humiliation and corporal punishment from the guards who felt that because of their power, they had the ability to do whatever they wanted. Within two days, the prisoners attempted an escape, which was ultimately stopped by the guards who then instituted even more strict and humiliating rules. With each day that passed, the prisoners felt more depressed and out of control, and the guards began to institute more and more humiliating and painful rituals. At some point, more.