The other day, I asked a question about the impetus for the Stanford Prison
Study. A student had wanted to know why Zimbardo and his colleagues had chosen
a prison situation as the focus of their study. I speculated that perhaps the
first author on the original paper, Craig Haney, was the initial impetus for
the study: he went on to become both an attorney and social psychologist, and
has done work on legal and penal matters.
But, according to a post I received from Beth Bennett, the story is much more
complex and interesting than this. She has given me permission to post her
response to TIPS. By the way, I did e-mail Zimbardo the other day, but I have
not received a response. This isn't surprising given the complexity of the
story (also. he probably looked at it, said "who the hell is this guy?!" and
deleted it).
Jeff Ricker
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8-APR-1999 18:50:16.84
From: IN%"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
To: IN%"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Subj: RE: Origins of Stanford Prison Study
Jeff,
There is an interesting piece in which Zimbardo
lays out the origins of the study in "Experiencing
Social Psychology: Readings and Projects" edited by
Ayala M. Pines and Christina Maslach. I have the third
edition and it is published by McGraw Hill. The piece
says it is "Adapted from 'Transforming experimental
research into advocacy for social change,' in M. Deutsch
and H. Hornstein (Eds.), Applying social psychology:
Implications for research, practice, and training (pp 33-66).
Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum (1975). "
I do not know how heavily it has been adapted, but it is
a facinating piece. According to this article by Zimbardo
the origin is actually a project done for an undergrad
Social Psych course, where the students had to do a group
project. One of the groups, led by David Jaffe (then an
undergraduate) decided to study prison environments by
role playing a prison simulation in a dormitory basement.
Apparently, the simulation was to collect personal experiences
and not formal data for their class project. Rather like
Zimbardo's later study it reportedly got a little out of hand
and destroyed some long term friendships (in spite of the
fact that the undergraduates involved all came from a dorm
dedicated to non-violence). The student group had also
arranged to have an ex-convict come to class on the day that
they were supposed to present their project. Zimbardo and
the ex-convict, Carlo Prescott, team taught a course on the
Psychology of Imprisionment that summer. It was at the
end of that course that Zimbardo decided to design a formal
study that later became his Stanford Prison study. Jaffe
left a summer job to be part of planning and implementing the
study, and Haney and Banks were involved because at the time
they were graduate students working with Zimbardo on other
projects.
That is esentially the condensed version of the background
that this article provides. This is the only written description
of the study that I have ever seen that gives this level of
detail. The description of the study itself also includes
some details that I have not seen (or don't remember seeing) in
other places.
If your student is interested it is well worth tracking
it down in one of the two sources I listed at the top of this
note.
Enjoy,
Beth Bennett
Beth Bennett
Psychology Department
Washington and Jefferson College
