FFV Doc Quiet Rage - The Standford Prison Study - Experiment Video; The Promise and Pitfalls of Going Into the Field Article

  Based upon the video I watched, "The Stanford Prison Study", I learned about how people can transition themselves into a whole different person when they are given a job/role, especially one that requires you to have power. I also learned about the manipulation  that occurs in a prison and the psychological tactics that the guards use to punish prisoners. In a way its harsh,but then again, the only reason a person should be in prison, is because he/she violates a law. Its sort of like "you made your bed so lay in it' situation. For people who were falsely accused of violations and do end up in prison, and have to deal with the lack of freedom there, would be very difficult and they will completely loose their minds.
  Psychological tactics included prisoners to do jumping jacks, push ups, and sit ups. This is all done by the prisoners because they feel that the guards have the upper hand. Those who didnt want to cooperate had been put in the "hole", which was punishment for them. Its called solitary confinement, when a prisoner is isolated from the rest of the inmantes.To me that was a physical punishment and unnecessary. The are already in prison which is already bad enough and locking them up into another place would lead them to go mentally crazy in a matter of time. This did happened to an inmate throughout the experiment. In his case, it was done purposely, forgetting that it was just an experiment. Watching the video, I myself forgot it was an experiment as well because it seemed so real. Manipulation took place when the visitors came to see the inmates. The prison was cleaned, the prisoners were groomed, and the prisoners were fed a hot meal and warned to not complain about visiting hours. Also, the music was played for the visitors through the intercom while they waited to see who they came for. This I can compare to when its PTA meeting at schools. Teachers classroom are clean, handouts suddenly appear on the walls, the teachers change their clothes and speak differently, all for the parents and even when there aren't PTA meetings, this takes place. For instance when the principal walks in a classroom without being expected, the teachers begins to teach like its their first day of work. The video basically proved that with power and authority, you can control those who are weak or have no say
  What I learned from the article "The Promise and Pitfalls of Going Into the Field" is that ethnography, is that in order to understand why people do or act the way they do you have participate in their activities and speak to people. You can't develop a theory based upon your own assumption. You have to be involved in what you want to observe with the people your observing and what they do. Participating in these activities, you would have to gather data, have a data analysis and a data presentation and thats what would make a successful ethnograpy.