What did the BBC prison Study Find?
In the original SPE, participants were assigned to the roles of guards and prison inmates. It was found that, over the course of the experiment, the guards became increasingly abusive and violent while the prisoners displayed increasing levels of anxiety and stress.
What did the BBC prison Study by Haslam & Reicher find?
Produced by Steve Reicher and Alex Haslam, it presents the findings of what has subsequently become known as the BBC Prison Study. These findings centered around “the social and psychological consequences of putting people in groups of unequal power” and “when people accept inequality and when they challenge it”.
Why did the Stanford Prison Experiment happen?
The experiment, funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, took place at Stanford University in August 1971. It was intended to measure the effect of role-playing, labeling, and social expectations on behaviour over a period of two weeks.
How long did BBC prison Study last?
The study was meant to last two weeks. But the brutality of the Guards and the suffering of the Prisoners was so intense that it had to be terminated after only six days. The study provided a graphic illustration of the power of situations to shape individuals’ behaviour.
What year was the BBC prison experiment?
2002
Introduction. The BBC Prison Study explores the social and psychological consequences of putting people in groups of unequal power. It examines when people accept inequality and when they challenge it. Findings from the study were first broadcast by the BBC in 2002.
What were the weaknesses of the BBC prison Study?
Science and society
- (a) that our study had no psychological reality for the participants;
- (b) that it was fundamentally flawed because participants knew they were taking part in an experiment and that this would be shown on television;
What is the experiment based on?
To a certain extent, yes. The movie, and the book that inspired it, is loosely based on the real-life Stanford prison experiment conducted in 1971. A group of test subjects was divided in two subsets, one assuming the role of prisoners and the other assuming the role of prison guards.
Who was Prisoner 8612?
Douglas Korpi
One of the prisoners (#8612), Douglas Korpi, a 22-year-old Berkeley graduate, began to exhibit uncontrollable crying and rage 36 hours into the experiment, described by Zimbardo as “acute emotional disturbance”.
Where is Dave Eshelman now?
The son of a Stanford engineering professor, Eshelman was a student at Chapman University at the time of the experiment. He was the prison’s most abusive guard, patterning himself after the sadistic prison warden (portrayed by Strother Martin) in the movie Cool Hand Luke. Today he owns a mortgage business in Saratoga.
How long was the SPE meant to last?
The Stanford prison experiment was supposed to last two weeks but was ended abruptly just six days later, after a string of mental breakdowns, an outbreak of sadism and a hunger strike.
How were prisoners and guards selected?
Q: How were students assigned to the role of prisoner or guard? A: The assignment was done randomly, as with the toss of a coin, to make sure that the prisoners and guards were comparable to each other at the beginning of the experiment. Thus, there were typically three students guarding nine prisoners.
What did the BBC prison Study show about what is necessary for effective leadership?
First, leadership is only possible where a set of people share a common group identity. Second, the most effective leader will be the person who is most typical of the group (the person whose prototypicality is highest) and hence able to best represent the shared group identity.