WOW! Some experiment. Now, as to what the experiment teaches or doesn’t teach is the ultimate question.
It has been 35+ years since that experiment was done. There have been loads of changes in the prison system since the Stanford experiment. So, what happens today when you put good people in a bad situation? Well, there are a lot of factors that affect how that good person will react. For example, I know a person who was an exemplary citizen and that individual ended up serving 2 years in a state facility. That person was considered a model inmate, worked in the law library, and when released became heavily involved in criminal law and the justice system.
So, I think that how a person reacts to that environment depends a great deal on how their inner psyche has developed. I do not believe that most “good” people will deliberately injure someone simply because a person in authority has told them to do so.
I have many examples from a life of military and exposure to criminal inmates that debunk that ideology. But, those are simply my thoughts. GREAT video.
In 1971, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo conducted a controversial experiment to test humans’ behavioral responses to captivity, i.e. how humans react when placed in varying authoritative and submissive positions within a controlled environment. This experiment became known as “The Stanford Prison Experiment”—the implications of which have both fascinated and frightened the psychiatric community at large for more than three decades. I’ve included the first part of an excellent documentary for you to watch. After viewing this documentary, I’d be curious to know what you think Zimbardo’s experiment teaches us about the human psyche, if any such lesson can be learned within so-called “controlled environments” like Stanford’s make believe prison. Let us know what you think in the comments section. We’ll talk again soon…
The insights of cultural/media theorist Douglas Rushkoff are always contemporary and often prescient. He was deciphering the social codes of the virtual psyche, lifestyle, and marketplace before such concepts were formally identified by the so-called “machine.” TheMerchants Of Cool is a brilliant analysis of the incorporation of youth pop-culture that Ruskhoff created while working as a correspondent for PBS Frontline. This is a very entertaining documentary. You’ll learn a lot too. Let me know what you think in the comments section.
Most famous for his radical theories on language learning and evolutionary psychology, Steven Pinker is a thinker with a vision that tends to provoke strong emotional responses in anyone who will listen. The reason may be rather simple. Pinker analyzes human intelligence from a zero sum perspective in which he meticulously deconstructs the foundations of what’s been established as scientific fact. The following video presentation was made at Google Headquarters. The Google geniuses always seem to bring in other geniuses to make the room smarter. Afterwards, please share your thoughts with the Ashworth Psychology community. Click on the image above to watch this video. It’s good.
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University Psychology Program
The nuclear explosions that devastated the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and the city of Nagasaki three days later resulted in massive destruction and loss of life. Although the precise number of casualties has never been determined, it is estimated that 70,000 died in Hiroshima due to the immediate effects of the blast with an additional 50000 in Nagasaki (mostly civilians).
Estimates of the lingering effects of radiation exposure are even more problematic although it has been suggested that many thousands of casualties occurred in the decades that followed. It would be the only time that nuclear weapons would be used in war (so far). Another legacy of the bombings is far more subtle but just as devastating for the survivors.
Since 1945, there has been a lingering stigma attached to survivors and their descendants that led to them being frequently ostracized by mainstream Japanese society. Termed the hibakusha (meaning “radiation-affected people” in Japanese), there are over 200,000 that have been formally registered with the Japanese government (registration being necessary to receive compensation) although many hibakusha also live in neighbouring countries such as South Korea (there were numerous Korean and other foreign nationals living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time of the bombings).
It would take years of activism and public awareness campaigns for the Japanese government to pass legislation subsidizing basic medical treatment for hibakusha in 1957. (the United States government was formally absolved of any responsibility for compensation in a treaty with Japan in 1951). Due to the misinformation surrounding radiation exposure including fears of it being hereditary or contagious, many hibakusha face ongoing job and housing discrimination and non-affected families even object to their children marrying into a hibakusha family. To avoid discrimination, many hibakusha conceal their status to “pass” in mainstream society.
The psychological scars involved with being a hibakusha are considerable although research into the psychosocial impact of being a survivor has been relatively neglected. In addition to the expected posttraumatic symptoms for those who survived the bombings, there is also considerable survivor guilt and a “conspiracy of silence” surrounding hibakusha discussing their experiences (although this has started to change as survivors become better organized). Survivors who emigrated to other countries after the war (including the United States) began organizing local support chapters. Despite attempts to encourage survivors to tell their stories, the lingering stigma has resulted in many hibakusha refusing to “out” themselves and sharing their experiences. As the elderly survivors die, their stories often die with them.
Stigma can take a variety of forms and people can be ostracized for all sorts of reasons. Having the wrong skin colour, creed, place of origin, medical diagnosis or sexual orientation has been used to justify horrendous discrimination over the years. Simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time seems sufficient for some. It can happen in a flash of light.
Romeo Vitelli
Creator of Providentia
AU Contributing Blogger
*A man who has lived a fascinating life, Dr. Romeo Vitelli spent fifteen years as a staff psychologist in Millbrook Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison run by the Ontario government. In 2003, he successfully escaped prison and went into full-time private practice and currently also serves as a Disaster Management volunteer with the Red Cross. He is one of the web’s most respected and trusted sources in matters of psychology. We here in the AUCJ community are honored to share with our students and would like to express our gratitude. Visit Providentia to learn more about the life and work of Dr. Romeo Vitelli.
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