The Stanford Prison Experiment and the Shawshank Redemption

#9 Use the work and research from your current research project (due 6 May), to write a journal entry just explaining how your topic is related to ToK and the WoK. 

The Shawshank Redemption is a short story written by Stephen King about a prison and the life in it. One of the themes of the Shawshank Redemption is institutionalization. Institutionalization means to succumb to the conditions of the jail and the behaviour of the prison guards. “I am what they call an institutional man now – I cannot get along on the outside” is a quote by Red, one of the main characters in the story. The quote implies that by being locked up in a place for many years, a man would get so used to the life of being oppressed that he would not be able to accept the freedom that he might win after he has served his sentence. In the story, the guards are brutal towards the prisoners and the prisoners are scared and cynical about leaving the prison. The environment created is negative because of the dead feeling for prisoners and the raging and wanting to assert power in the guards. However, the major issue starts with the wardens of the prison, who use their powers, negatively, to suppress the prisoners.

This story connects to the Stanford Prison Experiment. Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor, started the experiment to see whether the placement affects the emotions of a person and how a person would change himself negatively in regards to his environment. In the experiment, 24 volunteers were chosen from which 12 were randomly made guards and 12 prisoners. An easy day 1, however the human psychology started showing its true colours on the second day when the prisoners decided to go against the guards due to the oppression. The guards decided to torment these prisoners by abusing them with CO₂ gassing in their cells and making them repeat that it was their mistake and that they should be extremely sorry. Eventhough, the rebellion was held by a few of the prisoners, the guards induced that all the prisoners were a risk to their life and so with the increasing days, the guards kept increasing their authority. John Wayne wanted to be the “worst prison guard that he could possibly be”. They assumed the roles, as if those of a dictator because of the position they were kept in. On the other hand, the prisoners started obeying and doing as per the guard’s wish. Their mental conditions with the confined spaces and brutality started depreciating and prisoner #8612 was the first to have a breakdown caused due to the giving in to authority – the fallacy of Appeal to Authority which would disable them from thinking rationally and remember that they had done no crime and were just part of a simulation. Their emotions were subject to the decision of the guards and the guards would not feel any remorse because of the silver glasses that they wore and which gave them no way of looking into the eyes of others, making them  more resistant to emotion or pity.

The Shawshank Redemption story is the same life of a prison, however a true prison. In the story just like the guards at Stanford the position of power is misused and the position of weakness is succumbed to as no one dares to speak against the wrong even if they are right. And the right people turn wrong. 

Note: Click on the link below to find the powerpoint presentation made by me for the Stanford Prison Experiment. 
Powerpoint presentation on the Stanford Prison

Sensory Deprevation

Reflect on your experience of your environment? What do you notice? What are you missing? What differs from your normal experience? How difficult/comfortable is it? (500 word journal entry on sensory deprivation task )

For the sensory deprivation task, I had volunteered to cover my ears with the plugs and sit in a history class. Before starting this task, I thought that it would be easy for me as I have my sight and will be able to interpret easily what everyone was trying to say. Even in daily life, I get extremely uncomfortable when I have to close my eyes, however being deprived of sound has never had a huge impact because I feel quite dependent on the sense of vision. 
When I started, I was comfortable as I could understand what Mr. Neighbour was saying because he was pointing at a question on a piece of paper and the class nodded. When he wrote the question on the board, I knew that it was being discussed. The problems started when the hands started going up and everyone started answering questions. I could see a few of them pointing at the paper and discussing something important but I could not make out what they were telling. Everything around me was just so silent.I thought that Mr. Neighbour might write those answers down on the white board, but for the next ten minutes he wrote nothing, and with hindsight there was just the question on the board for the whole lesson. I could see the hand movements when people were explaining, but they are not meant to depict any answer they were helping them with articulation. However, I could not gather any answer out of the 5 lying in front of me. As I myself, did not the answer to those questions  because I had not studied the topic before, I felt extremely anxious and uncomfortable as I was not getting any answer. Such a situation, put me in a difficult and different situation because it was challenging to learn without hearing and I realised how much we depend for learning on our auditory senses. When I did "What type of a learner are you" tests in the beginning of the school year, the results were all showing that I am an auditory learner. This added to the challenge because I could not learn and when Mr. Neighbour looked at me questioningly, I thought that he asked me a question. My friends were beside me and tried to explain but it was difficult to follow their swift mouthing. I kept saying 'slow down' so that I could *guess* what they were trying to say. If it would be written about what is being discussed, then it would be much easier but I would have to adapt myself, with difficulty, to become a visual learner. 
For any person, if they are auditory learners and they have lost the sense then it would make it near to impossible for them to learn and acquire the knowledge needed. Coming back to the feeling of complete silence, I felt at peace but uncomfortable (two conflicted feelings) - a silent torture- because I am not used to a place without any sort of commotion. I am also someone who listens to a lot of music. With the passing time, it has unfortunately turned into an addiction of putting on the headphones. Being deaf would disable me from listening to music which would be unbearable. You cannot see and listen to music. 
All emotions of uncomfortable anxiety and confusion flooded my mind and that stopped me from thinking about the mouthing and making sense out of it. The moment I took my plugs out, I could hear people and it calmed me down so much and with that sigh I realised that I had underestimated the need of a well working auditory sense.