Ethical Issues in Stanford Experiment and Milgram Experiment

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1PSYCHOLOGY
Unit 9
Stanford Experiment:
1. The Stanford received many criticisms and it lacked of a fully informed consent for the
participants as because Zimbardo himself lacked the insight about what was going to happen in
the later part of the experiment. The Prisoners also did not provide any consent regarding being
arrested at the ‘home’. This was not told to the participants because the final approval was not
approved from the police and until the minutes before which the participants agreed to
participate the study. Furthermore, the researchers wanted the arrest to look like a surprise
(Griggs 2014).
2. From the identified flaws or loops in the study, the ethical guidelines were breached and it has
affected the scientific validity. However, it is important to note that the participants that played
the role of the prisoner were actually not given any protection from any kind of psychological
harm. The study was based on the distress, humiliation and related incidents. For example, one
of the prisoner was released after 36 hours because of uncontrolled screaming, anger and crying.
Furthermore, Zimbardo also highlighted that the emotional distress cannot be predicted from the
beginning (Griggs 2014).
Stanford Experiment part 2:
1. From the experiment it can be concluded that the participants weren’t aware that will be
administered shocks. The shocks were mild in nature and they were not of the same magnitude
that was depicted or marked on the machines. Secondly, the shocks were fake in nature and the
person that were assessing the situation knew about the amount of shock given to the participants
(Burger 2014).