Conforming to social roles

Question 1

Social Role

Answer 1

The parts we play as members of social groups based on certain expectations about the behaviour that is appropriate.

Question 2

Social norms

Answer 2

Agreed statements of behaviour within a group (eg. family, organisation) to which an individual is expected to conform.

Question 3

Deindividuation

Answer 3

The loss of a sense of personal identity sometimes experienced by individuals in groups or crowds. It can lead to violent and aggressive behaviour especially when individuals are anonymous and experience a loss of personal responsibility.

Question 4

Situational explanations

Answer 4

Deciding that people’s actions are caused by the situation in which they find themselves rather than their personality.

Question 5

Dispositional explanations

Answer 5

Deciding that other people’s actions are caused by their internal characteristics or disposition.

Question 6

Participant reactivity

Answer 6

In a situation in which an independent variable has an effect on ppts merely because they know they are being observed.

Question 7

Zimbardo’s research: Aim

Answer 7

Harley et al. (1972) - Zimbardo.
Controlled Observation
Aim: to investigate the impact of social roles on our behaviour.
Hypothesis: Assignment to the treatment of ‘guard’ or ‘prisoner’ would result in significantly different reactions on behavioural and emotional measures, as well as attitudes to self and other indices of coping and adaptation.

Question 8

Zimbardo’s research: Method

Answer 8

Volunteer sampling- Male college students.
Ensured that they were emotionally stable and psychologically well balanced. (as a control for dispositional explanations)
Replicated arrest, clothing, and terms of address after ppts were randomly assigned a social role.
- Taken to controlled setting- simulated prison.
- Recording, interviews, questionnaires, self- report scales.
- Paid $15 a day.

Question 9

Zimbardo’s research: Results

Answer 9

• Ppts conformed to their social roles.
• Guards became aggressive and dehumanising eg making prisoners clean with their hands.
• Prisoners experienced loss of personal identity, became passive.
• Some removed due to psychological harm/ distress (one prisoner refused to eat. By day 6, 5 ‘prisoners’ had emotional breakdowns)

Question 10

AO3: Zimbardo’s research (SPE)- Weaknesses

Answer 10

1) Major ethical issues in the study.
Ev- Zimbardo’s dual roles in the study- when a student wanted to leave, he spoke to Zimbardo in his role as superintendent.
Ex- leaning the conversation to a worry about the running of the prison, rather than a researcher with responsibilities towards ppts.

Question 11

AO3: Zimbardo’s research (SPE) - Strengths

Answer 11

1) Zimbardo and his colleagues had some control over variables.
Ev- Selection of ppts- emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned social role.
Ex- Way in which researchers tried to rule out dispositional differences as an explanation of the findings.
Increases internal validity= confidence in conclusions.

2) (Counter for lack of realism) Zimbardo pointed to evidence that the situation felt very real to the ppts.
Ev- Exemplified by collection of quantitative data, showed 90% of prisoners conversations were about prison life. Prisoner 416 expressed prison was a real one, just run by psychologists rather than government.
Ex- Situation real to the ppts, giving the study a high degree of internal validity.