After watching the videos and reading about the Stanford Prison Experiment it seems to me that the experiment was unethical to conduct. I do not believe the researchers had poor intentions, however the acts of abuse and degradation that occurred were clearly problematic and should have prompted immediate termination of the experiment. Although the participants gave consent to be a part of the study, one could argue that it was not entirely informed consent. Did the "prisoners" know that psychological abuse, and physical intimidation would be tolerated and encouraged? Neither the "guards" or the "prisoners" could have known what the situation would drive them to do, and similarly, neither could the researchers. However, the researchers did know what they hypothesized might happen; that abuse might or might not occur as a result of the participants assuming the roles they were given. Therefore, because they knew that abuse (physical or mental) could occur, I believe the study was unethical.
It is interesting that from what I understand, there was no on site psychiatrist to help the prisoners cope with their emotional breaks. Sometimes they were so far in to the experiment that they could not differentiate between reality and make-believe. They were convinced that they were still prisoners even when they were told they could go home and leave the experiment. It is strange that there was no one on call or nearby monitoring the experiment making sure that no one was being seriously affected.
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