Conforming to Social Roles

Question 1

define social roles

1

Answer 1

behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status

Question 2

outline a study into conforming to social roles

8

Answer 2

Stanford Prison Experiment by Zimbardo (1973)

• mock prison set up at Stanford University
• 25 male student volunteers
• screened psychologically and physically to check for abnormalities
• randomly assigned to either play the role of prisoner or guard
• prisoners = unexpectedly arrested at home, put through delousing procedures, given prison uniforms and assigned an ID number which they were referred to for the whole study — this all acted as dehumanisation tactics
• guards = given military uniforms, clubs, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses to prevent eye contact — this all created a sense of power
• zimbardo himself took the role of prison superintendent
• planned to last 2 weeks but only lasted 6 days after a postgraduate student intervened

Question 3

outline the findings of a study into conformity to social roles

5

Answer 3

both prisoners and guards conformed to the social roles given to them

within the first few days, the guards grew increasingly tyrannical and abusive towards the prisoners….
• woke prisoners in the night
• forced them to carry out degrading and humiliating tasks such as cleaning toilets with their bare hands
• some guards were so enthusiastic about their role that they volunteered to do extra hours without pay

prisoners became passive and accepting of the abuse, obeying the guards

even when unaware of being watched, they still conformed to their given roles — for example, one prisoner asked for parole instead of withdrawing from the study

5 prisoners were released early due to showing signs of extreme distress (crying, rage and anxiety)

Question 4

x3 evaluation points for the stanford prison experiment

Answer 4

unethical

demand characteristics

conformity to social roles was not automatic

Question 5

EVALUATION
unethical

5

Answer 5

participants experienced extreme emotional and psychological distress, 5 had to be released early due to showing signs of extreme distress (e.g. rage, crying and anxiety) — yet Zimbardo did not immediately stop the experiment

there was also confusion on the right to withdraw — for instance, one prisoner wanted to leave but was not allowed to do so immediately and was instead told to stay and become an informant

HOWEVER, the study did follow the ethical guidelines at the time and the university approved the study

there was also no deception as the participants were informed about what would happen in the study and agreed to take part

Zimbardo also carried out debriefing sessions for several years afterwards and concluded that there was no lasting negative effects

Question 6

EVALUATION
demand characteristics

4

Answer 6

Banuazizi et al (1975) argued that the behaviour of the guards and prisoners was due to demand characteristics rather than the ‘compelling prison environment’

the participants could’ve guessed the aims of the study and acted in a way that they felt was expected

for instance, one guard admitted to wanting to give the experimenters the results he believed they wanted and so acted accordingly

Banuazizi presented the SPE procedure to a large sample of students and the vast majority guessed the purpose of the experiment was to show that ordinary people would behave in roles assigned to them — guards would act in a hostile, domineering way while prisoners would become passive

Question 7

EVALUATION
conformity was not automatic

5

Answer 7

Zimbardo claimed that the guards’ drift into sadistic behaviour was an automatic consequence of them embracing their social role

however not all evidence supports this view, there is some evidence that suggests conformity was not automatic

for example, not all of the guards behaved cruelly or abusively — they did not degrade or harass the prisoners, dimes actually did small favours for them

similarly, not all prisoners became passive and accepting of the abuse, some outwardly defied the guards and attempted to riot

this suggests that the guards and prisoners chose how to behave rather than automatically conforming to their social role