Week 2: Stanford Prison Experiment

I feel that the Stanford Prison experiment began ethically.  Each participant signed a consent form before entering the experiment.  Unfortunately we do not know if the participants were informed of all possible physical and emotional stress that could occur.  I do not believe that the experiment controllers had any idea how intense things would get when they started this experiment.  As the experiment progressed it became clear quickly that the participants were taking their roles very seriously.  In one interview I watched, Philip Zimbardo had to step in and remove one prisoner because he was becoming very emotionally disturbed.  When the controllers tried to remove him the participant did not want to leave, thinking he had to finish what he started.  These prisoners actually began to believe that they were in jail.  Once the controllers began to notice that the participants were having real emotional stress from the experiment it should have stopped.  I feel that the experiment quickly became unethical because it was not stopped sooner.  I feel that the controllers let the experiment go on too long.  I saw some interviews of the participants after the experiment and they still seemed to be having some effects.  I do not know if those participants were followed for some time after the experiment ended but I would be interested to know if they suffered any lasting effects.