Chapter 1 - Stanford Prison Experiment

Question 1

Which psychologist carried out the Stanford prison experiment

Answer 1

Philip Zimbardi

Question 2

What were the two hypothesis zimbardo wanted to investigate

Answer 2

Non-disposition hypothesis, behaved like that because of prison structure

Dispositional- behaved like that because that is how they behaved on outside

Question 3

What was the final group for the experiment (SP) and how much were they payed per day ?

Answer 3

24 male college students

$15 a day

Question 4

What tactic was used to depersonalise prisoners

Answer 4

Refered to the prisoners by ID names only

Question 5

What were the guards instructed to do to maintain law

Answer 5

Do whatever necessary to maintain law, but no physical violence inflicted on prisoners

Question 6

How did zimbardo have a dual role in this experiment

Answer 6

He was the researcher in charge of the experiment

He was also the prison warden having an active role in the experiment

Question 7

On day 3 what was the main event ?

Answer 7

Prisoner 8612 had a complete mental breakdown, he wanted to leave but was told he couldn’t .

Question 8

What were the 3 types of prison guards within the experiment

Answer 8

1 tough but fair - followed prison rules
2 good guys - would do favours for prisoners
3 this that enjoyed their power and would humiliate prisoners ( John Wayne character )

Question 9

On what day did the experiment end

Answer 9

Day 6

Question 10

What was an overall result of the experiment involving expectations

Answer 10

All appear to have confirmed to preconceived expectations

Question 11

What three things did zimbardos results show

Answer 11

People will readily conform to expected social roles

Prison environment was a factor in creating guards brutal behaviour

Supports the situational explanation of behaviour

Question 12

What conclusions did zimbardo come to about the results of the study ?

Answer 12

Deindividuation - guards
Immersed in norms of group
Uniform- lost sense of personal identity

Learned helplessness- prisoners
Whatever they did had little effect on what happened to them
Guards were unpredictable

Question 13

3 evaluation points of the study

Answer 13

Demand characteristics- all knew they were being watched- could of acted differently
Ecological validity - most guards claimed they were acting
Generalisable to real life - the participants had no criminal background

Question 14

Methodical critique

Answer 14

Strong stereotypes of guesses and prisoners at the time could lead to participants simply acting in this way

Question 15

What may have been over-emphasised in the study

Answer 15

Cruelty of guards

Only 1/3 actually behaved aggressively

Question 16

What was the problem with this being an observational study ?

Answer 16

No control group

Could similar results be obtained with a more controlled experiment ?

Question 17

What is the problem with a volunteer sample

Answer 17

The volunteers were willing and knew the aim of the study from the advert

Question 18

Name some ethical issues involved with this study

Answer 18

Lack of fully informed consent - no consent to being arrested

Prisoners were not protected from psychological harm- prisoner 8612

Question 19

Name some of the neglected facts from this experiment

Answer 19

Prisoners 8612 breakdown may of been a sham - wanted this time to revise for exams but wasn’t aloud
Some even said ‘was fun we knew they couldn’t touch us’
3 prisoners asks to leave but told they couldn’t - (human rights)

Question 20

Name some neglected facts concerning the guards in the study

Answer 20

Guards were explicitly told how to behave and this may have made them more brutal

Question 21

Describe the replication of zimbardo a experiment theNBC prison study in 2002

Answer 21

Tighter experimental control
Guards did not exert same control
Prisoners able to work more effectively and were much more in control of situation

Question 22

Why did zimbardo set up the experiment

Answer 22

To see how readily people would conform to social roles

Question 23

At the time what was reported amongst guards at. American prisons

Answer 23

A lot of brutality amongst guards

Was this because of their personality, or the environment of the prison

Question 24

Where was the fake prison set up

Answer 24

The basement of the Stanford university psychology department

Question 25

What was the guards uniforms and kit

Answer 25

Khaki uniforms
Whistle
Baton
Mirrored sunglasses - no eye contact

Question 26

On day 4 and 5 what happened and what was zimbardo worried about

Answer 26

On day 4 and 5, there was a vsisting hour, Zimbardo made sure prison was cleaned up so the prisoners friends and family did not want to take them out of the experiment

Question 27

What reason did zimbardo give for stopping the experiment

Answer 27

Prisoners sense of reality had shifted, and it was no longer perceived as an experiment

Question 28

Who replicated the original advert

Answer 28

Carnahan and McFarland 2007

Replicated original advert
Then ran a second taking out the wording prison life
Participants who took part in study with word prison life, scores much higher with aggressive traits after taking psychometric tests
Lower on measures of empathy

Question 29

Some guards were concerned by the level of abuse and welfare of prisoners, what were the experiments response

Answer 29

Not to worry, as they had access to the nearby medical facilities, this basically legitimised the behaviour of the guards going to far

Question 30

In a study of 59 criminology textbooks hoe many were aceepting of the study as a percentage

Answer 30

79. 7%
80. 9% critical but acepting
81. 4% not acepting and critical

Question 31

In lovibonds study on prisons in 1979, in which condition did the guards exert brutal behaviour

Answer 31

Standard custodial- medium high security prisoners with authoritarian instructions

Question 32

What was similar about zimbardo and reicher and haslams study

Answer 32

Both had to be terminated early