Stanford prison experiment Essay

The experiment involved the violation of some of the prisoners’ rights and personal preferences such as getting compelled to strip naked, a move that greatly deteriorated their dignity. The experiment further highlighted the violation of inmates’ personal hygiene poor health care especially when the prisoners get forced to take part in the cleaning of their washrooms, without protective clothing such as gloves. Typically, the mistreatment and torture that got imposed on the prisoners affected them both psychologically and physically. Stanford Prison Experiment An ideal society is made of different people whose preferences and characteristics differ significantly. Universal ethics ensure that the needs and components of different people get accommodated under suitable environments in favourable terms that do suit other people within the same society.

For instance, the prison wardens compelled the prisoners to wake up in the middles of the night to clean toilets without protective clothing (Stanford University, 2011). A move that potentially hanged the health of the prisoners on balance. Following the staged experiment, upon prisoner 8612 managed to acquire his freedom, the prison superintendent got faced with the reality and make-believe situation of the looming doom. Moreover, rumours had reached him that the prisoner 8612 along with his friends were preparing launch an attack on the prison to liberate the remaining prisoners (Stanford University, 2011). Because of a sense of authority, the prison wardens were never ready to stop the experiment and decided to shift the prison even though the rumour never materialised. The prisoners were not treated in a just manner.

Following the incidences that unfolded, the prisoners were forced to wake up in the middle of the night to take part in the cleaning of their toilets, an activity that could have been organised during the day. It is clear that the prison wardens were thrilled by the tough times that the prisoners were going through. Some of the prisoners, such as prisoner number 416, were denied their rights for communication by getting detained away from other prisoners in total solitude (World Medical Association, 2009). The right for personal space and respect was another ethical concept that was significantly violated in the experiment conducted at the University of Stanford. The choice of prison premises proves useful in the demonstration based on the fact that the distinct difference in authority and dominance played a critical role in initiating events such as corruption that quickly violated standard ethics.

Following the standard ethics that got broken in the University of Stanford demonstration, there are chances that the same could be done to ensure the integrity of ethical code within a specific locality. Unlike the Stanford experiment, the rights and freedoms of people in a region can be preserved under strategic, ethical policies that govern the behaviour of different people irrespective of their social class or ethnic backgrounds (American Psychology Association, 1992). A consensus environment can be introduced in place of the prison environment to exhibit standard ethical politics in society. In the consensus experiment, students can divide into three distinct groups. org/ethics/code/index. aspx?item=1 Mental Floss. 10 famous psychological experiments that could never happen today. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.