Can you please edit my essay???

A typical person's perception of American soldiers is that they are people who serve to protect the United States from danger. However, a recent article has called this into question. On March 23, 2011, a U.S. soldier was sentenced to 24 years in prison after he pled guilty to killing unarmed Afghan civilians along with four fellow soldiers (KOMO Staff & News Services, 2011). In court, Spc. Jeremy Morlock, the U.S. soldier who pled guilty, stated that he had violated the principles that his father had instilled in him, and he takes full responsibility for the deaths (KOMO Staff & News Services, 2011). Morlock's lawyer, Geoffrey Nathan, stated, "There was a lack of supervision, a lack of command control and the environment was terrible. In Morlock's mind, he had no choice" (KOMO Staff & News Services, 2011). Morlock expressed to the judge that he has had a lot of time to reflect on his actions in Afghanistan and ask himself, "How could I have become so insensitive and lose my moral compass?" (KOMO Staff & News Services, 2011). The German news magazine Der Spiegel published photographs showing Morlock and other soldiers posing with dead Afghans. There was one photo that showed Morlock grinning as he lifts the head of a corpse by its hair (KOMO Staff & News Services, 2011). Although Morlock and his fellow soldiers' actions are completely unforgivable, they can be explained from a psychological viewpoint From a psychological perspective, their actions can be attributed to the stress of combat and the influence of the group on each individual soldier's actions.
In different societies, there are norms and roles that are given for the individuals to follow. Norms are normal expected actions that individuals have to follow. If a person were to violate the norms, there will be punishments. Besides having social norms, we have roles. Individuals have expectations of how to behave when they have a given role, like a social position (Wade & Tavris, 2008). It has been explained that people don't usually notice that its role has taken over them, which cause them to forget their moral compass (Straker, 2006). Roles are important to many people because it puts them in a powerful position, believing that they are part of the society. In addition, when people are assigned to a role, it gives them the ability to control whoever they can. (Wade & Tavris, 2008).
In 1971, Phillip Zimbardo started a psychological experiment of a prison life at Stanford University. The experiment took place at the basement of Stanford University and it was made into a prison. Before the experiment started, the male volunteers were divided into two different groups, prisoners or guards, by a flip of a coin. The "prisoners" were treated as criminals, by getting arrested, going to the police department and get documented, and were blindfolded till they reached their destination. Each prisoner wore a dress that had their ID number print on both sides and they also had to wear a chain around their ankle. The guards' attire was similar to normal guards' uniform. The guards also wore sunglasses because it's masks the identity and allows to behave in any way. The guards didn't have any knowledge of how to be guards, however they made their own rules that they believe what was right according to law. In the beginning of the experiment, both of the prisoners and guard were getting used to their roles. Soon enough, the guards started acting like the authority, as if it was their true role. The guards started to act cruel and punish the prisoners. In the guards' perceptive, the prisoners were seen to be dangerous, as if they did something horrible. However, in the reality, they did nothing wrong. One by one, the prisoners began to have emotional breakdowns. The guards agreed that they want to escalate their power. The guards mistreated the prisoners by having paper bags over their head, similar to the situation in Abu Ghraib. The experiment was suppose to last for two weeks, however, after six days, it was shut down. In the results of the experiment, it shows that human nature transform in a powerful situation. The power of a role has the ability to change a person's behavior and cause them to do things that they wouldn't normally do. (Zimbardo, 2009). Why do people obey? People obey for many reasons but mainly, because of authority. Individuals tend to follow orders even if it causes them to commit a crime or do something out of their nature (Wade & Tavris, 2008).
Individuals behave differently when they are in crowds rather than when they act alone. Regardless of how the group's actions are wrong, the person will still follow. There are many ways that people do when they are in groups. For instance, people will conform so they can be part of a group. Conformity occurs when other people influence an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Without knowing, their individuality will be changed. Groupthink also occurs when people want to avoid the negativity in the group. Instead of disagreements, there will be agreements and harmony between each other. There are a few symptoms of groupthink. One of the symptoms of the groupthink is an illusion of invulnerability, which means when a group believes that there is no wrong in their actions and their decisions are completely right (Wade & Tavris, 2008). This symptom is similar to the situation of the American soldiers and their "kill team".
In a group, people often developed a process called diffusion of responsibility, which means when a person blames the victim instead of himself or herself. In results, individuals becomes in a state of deindividuation, which cause them to lose their identity. Besides from being involved in a group, being engaged in a stimulating task, and meditative activities also affect the loss of their identity (Straker, 2006). According to Wade & Tavris (2008), deindividuated people have a possible chance of violating social norms and ethics. Attitudes and behaviors are learned from social and environmental influences. Individuals' attitudes changes when they are involved in a social group that has a different perspective from them. If a person's action is different from their own beliefs, they're experiencing cognitive dissonance. Eventually, individuals will start believing that their behavior is normal (Wade & Tavris, 2008).
In the world, there are different ethnicities, cultures, rules, and etc. There are some people that believe that they are more superior to another group of people. When a person invested in that belief that is called ethnocentrism. Some people would categorize themselves as "us", creating a social identity and created an impression that others are not one of them. According to Wade & Tavris (2008), people who are involved in the war will oppress their victims because they'll start believing that the victims are nothing other than humans. Prejudice happens often in the world and for many reasons. In different cultures or ethics groups, prejudice increases between them. (Wade & Tavris, 2008).
Many people believe that only evil people performed evil actions. However, it's not the evil people that matter. People's behavior often changes when they are surrounded by people that are different from them or when they are put in a situation that can trigger their mind to act differently than they would normally do. There are sets of psychological variables that affect human behaviors. There are reasons why people become evil and it is because of the situation that they are involved in. The American soldiers were placed in an environment that has caused their behaviors to change into something disruptive. There was a lack of control because there was no higher authorities to noticed their wrong doings and stop them.