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A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison

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... In the 70s, Philip Zimbardo conducted a study at the University of Stanford that replicated a prison environment with the main objective of researching how readily participants who were randomly assigned to guard or prisoner roles would conform to these roles (Zimbardo, 2007). The results of this experiment demonstrated the influence of situational variables on individual behavior, revealing that situational forces can influence and pervert individual dispositions (Haney et al., 1973;Zimbardo, 2007). Arendt's concept of Banality of Evil, which suggests that ordinary people can commit unimaginable evil acts under certain conditions and social pressures, agrees with the Prison Stanford Experiment (Zimbardo, 2007, p. 288;Blau et al., 2009). ...
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The Heroic Imagination Project (HIP) aims to redefine heroism as a set of habits that anyone can achieve. Research findings on the psychological foundations of negative forms of social influence that can lead to bystander behavior are translated into tools that individuals can use in their daily lives. Habits of wise and effective helping behavior are learned, modeled, and encouraged through the training of the "heroic imagination." According to the literature, practicing mindfulness can increase empathy, compassion, and prosocial behaviors. There is empirical evidence that compassion can act as a mediator between mindfulness and prosocial helping behaviors toward strangers, suggesting that mindfulness promotes this behavior and thus helps to overcome the bystander effect. With this hypothesis in mind, we created a program that combined mindfulness and HIP sessions. Five participants volunteered to participate in the "Creating Mindful Heroes" 9-week program. Throughout the sessions, they filled in a diary, and at the end of the program, they answered two feedback questionnaires. They were then invited to participate in individual interviews. The participants reported a positive overall perspective regarding the program, mentioning several improvements in their relationships with their family, peers, and others in society. Moreover, participants reported that the program promoted prosocial behaviors and aided them in developing empathy.
... Existing research thus tends to suggest that it is primarily the difficult conditions of the job and the nature of supervising incarcerated people that lead officers to commit acts of deviant behavior (see, more generally, Haney et al., 1973;Sykes, 1958). However, as with the literature on incarcerated people's misconduct (e.g., Walters & Crawford, 2013), it is just as plausible that officers import preexisting attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and personality traits into the institution that increase their risk of deviant behavior. ...
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Most research finds that individuals are drawn to the correctional officer occupation for the pay and benefits or because it provides a new and exciting opportunity. However, these are not the only interests for taking these positions. The current study draws on a sample of pre-service correctional officers surveyed prior to beginning their jobs (N = 673). In the spirit of the deviant case method, we focus on a subset of our sample who provided problematic motivations for becoming officers (n = 38). Using a thematic analytic approach, we identified five broad themes within this nefariously/disconcertingly motivated sample: use of force, punitive focus, power and control, cavalier ulterior motives, and problematic social boundaries. We theorize, based on prior research, that these individuals could constitute a meaningful minority that may contribute to the detriment of both their organizations and those they are overseeing. Future research should explore this possibility.
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The proliferation of virtual reality (VR) video games has revolutionised the gaming industry and is expected to have at least 20% growth in the next couple of years. The success of VR games urged different game developer to focus on the development of VR technology and thus lead to a rapid advancement of the technology. While the technology of VR is being improved and become widely distributed, it is high time to look at how the players would be affected by immersing in VR games. The essay argues that VR games affect not only the body but also the mind of players, lead to a rise in new ethical issues that requires an alternative way to look VR video games, and eventually affect the relationship between players and the reality. This essay will investigate the psychological and physical impacts from long term immersion of VR games, then the essay will discuss how such impacts change the perception of players’ themselves and the real world that leads to a series of ethical issues. This essay will concluded by say that no form of media are entirely free of agenda, neither is VR which seemingly blurred the sense of human being and create an illusion of utopia.KeywordsVR GamesPsychologicalEthical Issues
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The formulation of Charts for research ethics and Codes of conduct has been growing in the last few decades, on the one hand due to a renewed awareness of the ethical dimensions of research governance and the relationship between regulators and researchers, and on the other hand for the expansion of possibilities achieved by innovation in information and communication technologies. The voluntary involvement of research participants, risk management and prevention, data protection, community engagement, reflexivity of researchers are some of the centres of gravity of a debate that involves researchers, institutions, and citizens.
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