After learning about the Stanford Prison Experiment, and Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiment, the themes of power and authority emerge. The ethics of when to act or when not to act become almost both a primitive and intellectual question. What might determine one's helplessness - or empowerment - to not violate humanity's universally accepted moral standards, or even one's very own conscience? The Perception of Power and Authority Do "prisons" have to have bars....? Move beyond the physical prisons built of steel or concrete, or the authority structures in our lives, and think about what psychological prisons do we create for ourselves, or for others? If prisons are seen as forms of control which limit individual freedom of choice, how do they differ from the fictional prisons we create, and that limit us through racism, sexism, ageism, poverty, sizeism, and other mental or emotional means of control that bring threats of punishment if we "step out of line"? Focus your discussion on possible ideas such as: The illusion of a prison created in marriages where one spouse becomes "guard" and the other becomes a "prisoner" The illusion of prison created in anxiety where one aspect of the person becomes the prisoner who is told he/she is inadequate and hopeless, while another aspect serves as a personal guard The silent prison of shyness, in which the shy person is simultaneously his or her own guard and prisoner, and the world is seen as untrustworthy or dangerous Or consider if there are social institutions that are expected to "help" and "protect" us - but that rather imprison us psychologically and emotionally if we don't comply *Please include in your essay how a research study could be done to find data showing whether and/or how these patterns of social control could be contained, overcome, or eliminated? What would your study look like? (i.e. questionnaires, surveys, etc.) Would you present averages and trends? Would you find correlations with strong probabilities? Please explain what you think might be illuminated with your hypothesis.