Chapter 4: Make sure you watch the video “Zimbaro’s Stanford Prison Experiment” embedded in the powerpoint presentation. For your discussion for this chapter, talk about the film with your group members, and try to answer the following questions: 1). Did the behavior of the participants (the guards AND the prisoners, BOTH of whom were actually naïve college students) surprise you? 2). Did the behavior of the experimenters (Zimbardo and his staff) surprise you? 3). If you had been a prisoner or guard participant in this study, do you think you would have behaved differently? Why or why not? 4). As you frame your response, highlight the difference between attitudes leading to behaviors versus behaviors leading to attitudes, and tie it in with your ideas about the Stanford Prison Experiment. In your follow-up comment, critique another group member's response, paying close attention to the "attitudes leading to behaviors versus behaviors leading to attitudes" arguments. Did they make a convincing argument that attitudes lead to behavior (or behavior leads to attitudes)?

As an optional (but interesting) discussion, feel free to talk about how attitudes are driving our current political climate in the United States.

Zimbaro’s Stanford Prison Experiment

The film is about naive college students being used as study participants for psychological research in which they were supposed to role-play characters they were not informed about. The college students were supposed to assume the roles of prisoners and prisoner wardens to identify the behavioral changes that occur when human beings are subjected to conditions they already have an informed mind about. The behavior of the college students was astonishing in that they consented to take part in a study whose implications were a real situation happening to war captives in a war-torn region in Afghanistan.

The research participants took part in an experiment in which they were subjected to inhumane prison conditions, and they consented to participate for several days without raising concerns. It was surprising that the study participants did not have the professional requirement to act as real prison guards and prisoners, forcing the study to miscarry before completion. It was absurd for the study participants to get involved in a life-threatening study at the expense of a fulfilling career for the researcher. The study participants comfortably complied with the torturous incidents of the study when they actually knew what was expected of them to provide meaningful conclusions for the researcher.

I would not accept to take part in such a research well knowing that I was taking my freedom and rights at stake. There was a need for trained and qualified guards to take the interrogation role to arrive at the desired research outcomes. Using students who were naïve of the expectations of the study outcomes were violating their rights and a breach of experimental research ethics. I would restrain from such an experiment the moment I realized I was being used as a study participant for the wrong research devoid of the expected outcomes. The use of a real person would enhance the study outcomes because the real situations would be captured without having to role-play.

Attitudes Leading to Behaviors Versus Behaviors Leading Attitudes

Attitude is concerned about a person's thoughts in regard to certain ideas, values, people, systems, and institutions, whereas behavior refers to the real manifestation of feelings, actions, or inaction, either through speech or through body language. An attitude is a conformity of emotions, beliefs, and conduct toward a unique object, person, thing, or event. They are frequently the result of prior experience or upbringing, and they have a strong influence on behavior.

When individuals capitalize on their attitudes and feelings, they tend to act on those attitudes, indicating that attitude and behavior are closely related. In the event that people feel more responsible for their own actions rather than being part of a group, their attitudes match their behavior. Attitudes dictates an individual’  behavior either a positively or negatively way. People with a positive attitude are active and productive, and they do everything they can to lift the spirits of those around them. Attitude influences behavior more than behavior influences attitude. When we engage in a predictable or unexpected behavior, our thoughts and feelings about that behavior are likely to turn different. The use our behaviors as a guide to help us define our thoughts and feelings, results in self-perception.