Psychology Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Psychology - Personal Statement Example Explaining this fact we see that, on the one hand, it was ethical because it followed the guidelines of a special Stanford ethics committee that allowed and approved it. Experiment’s participants were told that they would be assigned either the role of the guard, or the role of the prisoner in a completely random manner, and they all volunteered to play any of these roles for $ 15 a day for a period not exceeding two weeks. They signed a contract guaranteeing them a minimally adequate diet, clothing, shelter and medical care, as well as monetary rewards, and instead signed an ‘intention’ to perform an interim role during the whole experiment. On the other hand, it was unethical because the participants-prisoners were forced to stay in a simulated prison for the whole day during the study period and they were suffered, being humiliated by their fellows over the period of the experiment. Continuing the discussion of this ethical question we can mention that it was n ot right to trade ‘sufferings’ experienced by participants for the knowledge gained by the research, and understanding this fact the experiment was stopped mush earlier.