Philip Zimbardo


( 1933 - )

Compiled by Amy Fails

Zimbardo





• Biography
• Theory
• Time Line
• Bibliography

Philip Zimbardo's largest contribution to the field of psychology was to the area of social psychology. He is most famous for his 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment which showed the dramatic consequences of putting normal, healthy students in a mock prison.

Philip was the first member of his family to attend college. He received his B.A. in 1954 from Brooklyn College. He went on to complete his M.S. and Ph.D., 1959, from Yale University in Social Psychology. He taught at Yale University, New York University and Columbia University. He has been a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University since 1968. Aside from teaching Zimbardo's other two deep concerns are generating knowledge through original research and for the classic giving psychology away to the public.

Zimbardo's research includes prisons, time, shyness, madness, violence/evil, persuasion, dissonance, hypnosis, and teaching. Philip continues research in the area of social psychology, personality, and abnormal psychology. He has authored more than 200 professional articles, chapters, popular articles, and dozens of trade and textbooks. He holds many honors and awards from Stanford for his excellence in teaching and from the American Psychological Foundation, Western Psychological Foundation, Phi Beta Kappa and NYU. Zimbardo has recently been elected APA president for 2002.

Zimbardo's Major Influences

Zimbardo's research has covered many areas of psychology. It has involved role-playing, laboratory experiments, field studies, simulations and studies that demonstrate psychological phenomena. His research has been centered on the ideas of how good people can do evil deeds, smart people do dumb things, ordinary people do unexpected things and how the power of the social situation can overwhelm and distort the values of personalities and behavior of every man and every woman.

Zimbardo was involved in establishing a community Shyness Clinic and Shyness Institute. The Shyness Clinic originated at Stanford as an experiment. Zimbardo wanted to help Stanford students improve their social functioning. It has since been moved several times and renamed, but it has returned to being the Shyness Clinic. Zimbardo is very interested in how to liberate people from self-imposed prisons that restrain them from enjoying life. He has since set up the Shyness Institute to help further shyness research.

Zimbardo is probably best known for his role in the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Twenty-four normal, healthy students were put in a mock prison. Some were made "guards" and others "prisoners". The purpose of this study was to observe what happens when you put good people in an evil place. It was planned to be a 2-week investigation but was stopped after only six days because the guards had become sadistic and the prisoners had become depressed and showed signs of extreme stress. This study has become a classic example of the power of social situations. It analyzes the psychology of evil and the controls of human feelings.

Time Line of Zimbardo's Life

1933- Born in New York
1959-60- Taught at Yale
1960-67- Taught at NYU
1967-68- Taught at Columbia
1968-- - Professor of psychology at Stanford
1969- Co-published Influencing Attitudes and Changing Behavior
1969- Published Cognitive Control of Motivation
1970- Co-published Canvassing for Peace: A manual for volunteers
1971-famous Prison experiment
1971- Published Psychology & Life
1977- Co-published Shyness: What is it, what to do about it
1979- Co-published Shyness workbook
1980- Co-published Shy Child

References

http://www.zimbardo.com/biography.htm
http://www.galenet.com/
http://www.prisonexp.org/
http://www.shyness.com/

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