Home : Psychology : Catalogue : The BBC Prison Study

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In this accessible and engrossing DVD Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher tell the story of the largest field study in social psychology for over 30 years using original illustrative film from the BBC series.
Psychology: The BBC Prison Study Psychology: The BBC Prison Study
1) Setting Up & 2) Early Days

The first two sections look at how the study was set up, especially the ethical issues, and how the participants adjusted to the stark inequality of their new surroundings.

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3) Conflict and Order

This section documents the growing social identity of the prisoners, the role of the individual in harnessing group identity, and the breakdown of order leading to the prisoners’ break out.
Psychology: The BBC Prison Study Psychology: The BBC Prison Study
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4) Rise and Fall of the Commune

Here we see the development of a new egalitarian system in the prison, its decline and beginnings of a much more authoritarian system.

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5) Conclusions

In the final section Haslam and Reicher provide a clear, accessible summary of the three main conclusions that came out of this extraordinary study.
Psychology: The BBC Prison Study Psychology: The BBC Prison Study Psychology: The BBC Prison Study
In four additional sections Haslam and Reicher discuss in more detail some of the core things to emerge from the research.

• Social identity and its implications
• The ethics of the study
• Their sources of data
• Comparisons with the Stanford Prison Study

The BBC Prison Study

Running time 25 minutes.

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£48.00 (+VAT = £56.40)

“BPS Award for Haslam and Reicher: In September Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher won the 2009 British Psychology Society’s Annual Award for Excellence in Teaching for their work on the BBC Prison Study. The award recognized the influence the study has had on the social psychology curriculum and the researchers' commitment to supporting psychology teachers.”

“"We are delighted by this award. Social Psychology has so many important things to say about things that concern all of us: how we can create harminious communities, how leadership works, when and why there is tension, hostility and even violence between groups. The BBC Prison Experiment addresses all these issues. Through our website and our DVD's on 'The Experiment', Alex and I have tried to present rich ideas in a compelling and accessible way for a broad audience. The British Psychological Society Teaching Award suggests that our efforts have paid off."”

Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher