Does the Stanford Prison Experiment Help Explain the Effects of Imprisonme~

[Keny]

ISSUE 11. Does the Stanford Prison Experiment Help Explain the Effects of Imprisonment?

YES: CRAIG HANEY AND PHILIP ZIMBARDO, FROM “THE PAST AND FUTURE OF U.S. PRISON POLICY: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT,” AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST (JUNE 1998)

NO: DAVID T. LYKKEN, FROM “PSYCHOLOGY AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: A REPLY TO HANEY AND ZIMBARDO,” THE GENERAL PSYCHOLOGIST (SPRING 2000)

Social psychologists Craig Haney and Philip Zimbardo believe that the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment should inform U.S. prison policy. Behavioral geneticist David T. Lykken argues that the experiment was not realistic enough to say anything meaningful about real prison life and that personality factors are more important in determining the behavior of prisoners.