Philip Zimbardo
Philip Zimbardo ( Philip George " Phil" Zimbardo, born March 23, 1933, New York City ) is an emeritus professor of psychology at Stanford University (USA). In 1959 received his doctorate from Yale University psychologist made in 1971 with its become known as the Stanford Prison experiment investigation for excitement as he examined the violent behavior of people.
Biography
Zimbardo, son of Sicilian parents, grew up in the Bronx in New York City and attended Monroe High School along with Stanley Milgram. He received his Bachelor on the Brooklyn College, master and doctorate he earned at Yale University.
After teaching for several years at New York University, he joined in 1968 a professorship of psychology at Stanford University in Palo Alto. Here he conducted the famous Stanford Prison Experiment ( SPE), which was later made into a movie in which 24 normal college students were randomly selected as prison guards or prisoners in a " prison " that in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford as a dummy was constructed. The students lived there more and more into their roles, the " guards " were always sadistic and the prisoners became more passive and showed signs of extreme depression. The experiment was to last two weeks, but was canceled after only six days. It led to theories about the importance of the social environment in individual psychology, which are also supported by the Milgram experiment, the experiment of Asch conformity experiments and by Muzaffer Serif.
After the experiment, Zimbardo was looking for funds, as he could use psychology to help people. He founded the Shyness Clinic in California that treats shyness in children and adults. His research on this subject has also led to several books.
2004 Zimbardo said in court in the case of "Chip" Frederick, a guard at Abu Ghraib prison from. He argued that Frederick's sentence should be reduced because his experiment had shown that few can resist the atmosphere in a prison. As critics of the system, which deals with the influence of "toxic " situations on human behavior, Zimbardo reacted with anger to the assertion of the Bush administration, " a few bad apples " were responsible for the scandal by saying: "Not the apples are lazy, but the field. " the judge seemed to disagree, he sentenced Frederick to the maximum penalty. This led Zimbardo made in an interview in the New York Times and was treated, among other things in the world and Der Tagesspiegel.
His textbook Psychology and Life ( German: Psychology ) provides an overview of the field of psychology. In 2013 he was elected together with Hans -Werner Gessmann from Harvard University in the list of the 30 most influential living psychologist.
Trivia
Since 2003, Philip Zimbardo was awarded the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for his report Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities.