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Research Ethics Stanford Prison Experiment Summary EssayThe Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) was conducted in 1971 at Stanford University in the basement of the psychology building. Philip Zimbardo as lead researcher headed the research team to study the impact of situational variables on human behaviour. Zimbardo and his team advertised for volunteers to a social experiment offering $15 in payment per day. Wanting to examine the dark side of human nature, applicants were required to have no criminal record, no psychological issues and no study medical conditions.Each of the 70 applicants were psychologically tested and the 24 most normal were selected to take part in the SPE. The 24 selected participants were then divided into cardinal groups randomly, with one half being prisoners and the other half being guards. The guards were taken to the mock prison before the prisoners arrived to help in the final stages of the prisons construction and to help select their military styl e uniforms, this was to give the guards a sense of ownership over the prison environment.Alternatively the prisoners were surprised with real patrol and authentic processing before being incarcerated into the prison. Despite it being an artificially created environment the guards and prisoners quickly altered their behaviour in response to the situational variables of the experiment. Prisoners were dehumanized and their individuation stripped away, while the guards became increasingly more sadistic and degrading towards the prisoners. After the guards crushed an early attempted rebellion by the prisoners, one prisoner was released for playacting irrationally to a point that seemed pathological.After this some of the prisoners became super-conformist, following rules to the letter. While other prisoners began to act crazy in an effort to passively escape kindred the first released prisoner. The guards fell into three categories with some acting sadistically and degrading towards the prisoners, others going completely by the book and some guards acting kindly and doing small favours for the prisoners. no(prenominal) of guards ever intervened or questioned the actions of other guards however no matter what kind of guard they were.The experiment was terminated early after just six eld when an outsider, a recent PhD graduate came in from the outside and saw how out of control the experiment had become. Ethical issues that arose during the SPE were the harm done to the participants. Guards were allowed to inflict real put out and humiliation on the prisoners over an extended period of time. The experiment was allowed to continue for longer than it should have because the participants and observers fell too deeply into their roles. There was also teeny or no regard for the participants confidentiality during the SPE.