5. Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment Flashcards
What are social roles
The parts ppl play as members of various social groups.
These are accompanied by expectations we have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role
When was Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
1973
Aim of Zimbardo’s prison experiment
- Due to mass police brutality reports throughout America in 1960s, Zimbardo wanted to answer the question:
Do prison guards behave brutally bc they have sadistic personalities, or is it the situation that creates such behaviour?
Can good ppl conform to become bad?
Method of Zimbardo’s SPE
25 male student volunteers recruited & randomly allocated to either guards or prisoners in a mock prison. They were expected to behave as these roles would. The prisoners were ‘arrested’ as they went abt their day, taken to ‘prison’ & given uniforms & numbers. They were supervised at all times. The guards wore khaki shirts, trousers & dark glasses, carrying wooden batons. The guards were given the power to make up the rules of the prison
initially, guards tried to…
Results of Zimbardo’s SPE
Initially, the guards tried to assert their authority & the prisoners resisted by sticking tg. The prisoners then became more obedient, while the guards enforced nastier punishments even for the smallest misdemeanours.
Their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners’ psychological & physical health. The experiment was abandoned after 6 days instead of scheduled 14 due to some prisoners becoming very distressed
(Guards employed ‘divide and rule’ tactics by playing the prisoners off against eachother)
well balanced men
Conclusion of the results of Zimbardo’s SPE
Guards & prisoners adopted their social roles quickly. Zimbardo claims this shows that our social role can influence our behaviour - seemingly, well-balanced men become unpleasant & aggressive in the role of guard.
Behaviour must have been due to the pressure of the situation as they were randomly assigned
Criticisms of Zimbardo’s SPE
- Participants didn’t give informed consent, were humiliated & deprived of basic human rights
- Argued that ends do not justify the means (process was not worth the final results)
- Artificial environment, results cannot really be generalised to real-life situations
- In terms of ethics, some participants found the experience very distressing. There is also a problem w observer bias, as Z ran the prison himself, later admitted that he became too personally involved in the situation. The conclusion Z reached does not explain why only some of the participants acted according to their assigned roles
How did Zimbardo respond to public criticism
He replied stating that he
- spoke with participants
- provided them w longitudinal care
Affects of Zimbardo’s SPE on mental health
- Prisoners became subdued, depressed & anxious
- One prisoner had to be released after 1 day as he showed symptoms of psychological disturbance
- 2 more were released on the 4th day
- One prisoner went on a hunger strike, which resulted in guards force feeding him & putting him in the ‘hole’
- This prisoner was shunned by other prisoners
- The guards identified w their role the most, becoming brutal & aggressive, appearing to enjoy the power
Real world applications of Zimbardo’s SPE
From 2003-4, the US Army Military police personnel committed series of human rights violations against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Prisoners were tortured, physically & sexually abused, routinely humiliated and some were murdered.
Who is Lynndie England
Lynndie Rana England is a former US Army Reserve soldier who was prosecuted for severely mistreating detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad during Iraq War.
What were Lynndie England’s reasonings
Claimed she didnt actually hurt anyone & she was only in the photographs. She stated that she performed her horrific acts bc her husband ordered her to do so if she loved him.
What was good about Zimbardo’s SPE
- This was a controlled observation, so there was good control of variables. Z & his colleagues had some control over variables
Evaluation of Zimbardo’s SPE: lack of realism
Banuazizi & Mohavedi (1975) argued that participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role. Backed up by:
- one of the guards claimed he based his role on a brutal character in the film, ‘Cool Hand Luke’
- prisoners rioted bc they thought that’s what real prisoners did
Zimbardo’s respons to Banuazizi & Mohavedi
Quantitative results gathered during the procedure showed 90% of the prisoners’ conversations were abt prison life. (arguing that there were aspects of realism)
Prisoner 416 expressed the view that it was a real prison, simply run by psychologists, not the government
1/3
Evaluation of Zimbardo’s SPE: role of dispositional influences
- Fromm (1973) accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour & for minimising the role of personality factors
HOWEVER - Only a third of the guards behaved in a brutal manner
- Another third were keen on applying rules fairly & the rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners
- The conclusion drawn that participants were conforming to social roles, could be over stated
- The guards were able to exercise right or wrong choices, despite the situational pressure to conform to a role
Who replicated Zimbardo’s SPE
In 2006, Reicher & Haslam replicated the experiment with the BBC
What did Reicher & Haslam’s replication find
Prisoners took control of the mock prison & subjected the guards to a campaign of harassment & disobedience.
Similarly, Social Identity Theory (Tajifel, 1981) - guards failed to develop a shared social identity as a cohesive group but the prisoners did
Prisoners actively identified themselves as members of a social group that refused to accept the limits of their assigned role
Method of Reicher & Haslam’s BBC prison study
This was a controlled observation in a mock prison, which was filmed for television. 15 male volunteers who had responded to an advert were randomly assigned to 2 groups - 5 guards, 10 prisoners.
They had daily tests to measure levels of depression, compliance w rules, and stress. The prisoners knew that one of them, chosen at random, would become a guard within 3 days.
An ethics committee had the power to stop the experiment at any time in order to protect participants
guards failed to form a…
Results of Reicher & Haslam’s BBC prison study
Guards failed to form a united group & identify w their role. They felt uncomfortable w the inequality of the situation. In the first 3 days, prisoners tried to act in a way that would get them promoted to guard status.
After 1 was promoted, they became a much stronger group bc they knew there was no more chances of promotion. The unequal system collapsed due to unwillingness of guards and the strength of prisoner group. On day 6, the prisoners rebelled & they decided to live in a democracy but this also collapsed due to tensions within the group
Some of the former prisoners then wanted to set up a stricter regime w them as leaders. Study was abandoned early by ethics committee as participants showed signs of stress
Conclusion of the results of Reicher & Haslam’s BBC prison study (simple)
The participants did not fit into their expected social roles, suggesting that these roles are flexible
Evaluation of Reicher & Haslam’s BBC prison study
- Prisoners were a strong group, guards were weak
- Guards were not as empowered as the guards in Zimbardo’s experiment
- The study has been criticised for being made for TV - many including Z, argued that elements of the study were staged & the participants played up for the cameras
- Artificial situation so results cannot be generalised to real life
- Ethics of the study were good, participants were not deceived & gave informed consent
- Participants were protected by ethics committee. They were also debriefed & offered counselling afterwards
Orlando (1973): similar study into assigned roles
Orlando set up a mock psychiatric ward in a hospital for 3 days. 29 staff members of the hospital volunteered to be ‘patients’, & were held in the ward. Another 22 staff members were just asked to carry out their normal daily roles
It only took a little while for the ‘patients’ to start behaving like real patients, becoming v difficult to tell them apart. They seemed to be conforming to the rules they had been assigned.
Many showed signs of depression & withdrawal, 6 even trie to escape the ward
Reactions after Orlando’s study
After the study, the mock patients reported that they had felt frustrated, anxious & despairing. Some felt they had lost their identity, that their feelings weren’t important & that they weren’t being treated as people
