The Psychology of Imprisonment

[goymz]

Pretty interesting and at times disturbing documentary about the psychology of imprisonment:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=psychology+of+imprisonment

I think the experiment organiser is a dick for being involved and therefore not being objective. Results are scary but interesting though.

I learned last year the idea of a panopticon. Prison design was changed from a traditional four walled design to cells with an open face. These cells would be arranged in a circle with all the open walls facing a watch tower placed in the middle of the circle. The watch tower would have special glass in it so prisoners could not tell if they were being watched or not.

The idea was that if they thought they were always being watched they would in turn moderate their behaviour.

 

[S O F I]

I was about to say "sounds like the Stanford Prison Experiment", but then, voila.

I encourage people who have the time to watch it. It's great for psychology students but even better, I think, for political science students.

 

[Bhuddahhoodlum]

"a white boy, unable to cope with minimal prison hardships."
:laugh:

nah, c'mon. you knew he was gonna say it.

 

[goymz]

I was about to say "sounds like the Stanford Prison Experiment", but then, voila.

I encourage people who have the time to watch it. It's great for psychology students but even better, I think, for political science students.

I've actually just remembered that I've watched a movie I think was based on this experiment. I missed the start of it so I don't know what it was called but it was a German film which had the same lead male actor as Run Lola Run did. It was weird to be thrown right in the middle of which was probably why I carried on watching it and although it did over dramatise it (people started getting killed etc) I'd be very surprised if this Stanford Prison experiment wasn't the inspiration for it.

 

[Illuminattile]

Stanford and Milgram were the two experiments we looked at in detail at AS-Level psychology. They used them to sucker people into doing A2-Level psychology, which was all really dull.

Fascinating to see how ordinarily rational people can change based on their role in the experiment. I think Tajfel was the other really interesting experiment, looking at ingroup bias.

 

[S O F I]

I've actually just remembered that I've watched a movie I think was based on this experiment. I missed the start of it so I don't know what it was called but it was a German film which had the same lead male actor as Run Lola Run did. It was weird to be thrown right in the middle of which was probably why I carried on watching it and although it did over dramatise it (people started getting killed etc) I'd be very surprised if this Stanford Prison experiment wasn't the inspiration for it.

Yeah, the movie you're talking about was directly based upon this experiment. The name escapes me though.

 

[Flipmo]

Ya Ive studied this in Psych. Really interesting.

 

[goymz]

Stanford and Milgram were the two experiments we looked at in detail at AS-Level psychology. They used them to sucker people into doing A2-Level psychology, which was all really dull.

Fascinating to see how ordinarily rational people can change based on their role in the experiment. I think Tajfel was the other really interesting experiment, looking at ingroup bias.

Yeah one of the most interesting things was one of the 'after interviews' where one of the mock police guards admitted (to a mock prisoner) that he didn't know he was capable of such things and how he surprised he was at how he embraced the role.

What happened with Milgram and Tafjel?

 

[ImmortalTech]

... the video's not on youtube anymore... anywhere else I can watch it?

 

[goymz]

That sucks. The full thing has gone, but there's still this short little thingy on it:

 

[lii]

isnt the LA twin towers prison, which is also the largest prison in the world, designed with the panopticon design?