Chapter 1 - Stanford Prison Experiment Flashcards
Which psychologist carried out the Stanford prison experiment
Philip Zimbardi
What were the two hypothesis zimbardo wanted to investigate
Non-disposition hypothesis, behaved like that because of prison structure
Dispositional- behaved like that because that is how they behaved on outside
What was the final group for the experiment (SP) and how much were they payed per day ?
24 male college students
$15 a day
What tactic was used to depersonalise prisoners
Refered to the prisoners by ID names only
What were the guards instructed to do to maintain law
Do whatever necessary to maintain law, but no physical violence inflicted on prisoners
How did zimbardo have a dual role in this experiment
He was the researcher in charge of the experiment
He was also the prison warden having an active role in the experiment
On day 3 what was the main event ?
Prisoner 8612 had a complete mental breakdown, he wanted to leave but was told he couldn’t .
What were the 3 types of prison guards within the experiment
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 )
On what day did the experiment end
Day 6
What was an overall result of the experiment involving expectations
All appear to have confirmed to preconceived expectations
What three things did zimbardos results show
People will readily conform to expected social roles
Prison environment was a factor in creating guards brutal behaviour
Supports the situational explanation of behaviour
What conclusions did zimbardo come to about the results of the study ?
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
3 evaluation points of the study
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
Methodical critique
Strong stereotypes of guesses and prisoners at the time could lead to participants simply acting in this way
What may have been over-emphasised in the study
Cruelty of guards
Only 1/3 actually behaved aggressively
What was the problem with this being an observational study ?
No control group
Could similar results be obtained with a more controlled experiment ?
What is the problem with a volunteer sample
The volunteers were willing and knew the aim of the study from the advert
Name some ethical issues involved with this study
Lack of fully informed consent - no consent to being arrested
Prisoners were not protected from psychological harm- prisoner 8612
Name some of the neglected facts from this experiment
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)
Name some neglected facts concerning the guards in the study
Guards were explicitly told how to behave and this may have made them more brutal
Describe the replication of zimbardo a experiment theNBC prison study in 2002
Tighter experimental control
Guards did not exert same control
Prisoners able to work more effectively and were much more in control of situation
Why did zimbardo set up the experiment
To see how readily people would conform to social roles
At the time what was reported amongst guards at. American prisons
A lot of brutality amongst guards
Was this because of their personality, or the environment of the prison
Where was the fake prison set up
The basement of the Stanford university psychology department
What was the guards uniforms and kit
Khaki uniforms
Whistle
Baton
Mirrored sunglasses - no eye contact
On day 4 and 5 what happened and what was zimbardo worried about
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
What reason did zimbardo give for stopping the experiment
Prisoners sense of reality had shifted, and it was no longer perceived as an experiment
Who replicated the original advert
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
Some guards were concerned by the level of abuse and welfare of prisoners, what were the experiments response
Not to worry, as they had access to the nearby medical facilities, this basically legitimised the behaviour of the guards going to far
In a study of 59 criminology textbooks hoe many were aceepting of the study as a percentage
- 7%
- 9% critical but acepting
- 4% not acepting and critical
In lovibonds study on prisons in 1979, in which condition did the guards exert brutal behaviour
Standard custodial- medium high security prisoners with authoritarian instructions
What was similar about zimbardo and reicher and haslams study
Both had to be terminated early
