conformity : conformity to social roles Flashcards
outline study into conformity to social roles
zimbardo 1973
A- To investigate how readily people conform to social roles in a stimulated environment
P - Set up mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford university
21 male student volunteers who tested as ‘emotionally stable’
Student were randomly allocated to play the role of prison guard and prisoner
Both prisoner and guard had to wear uniforms
Prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number
Guards were given props like handcuffs, wooden club and mirror shades(to make eye contact with prisoners impossible and to reinforce the boundary between the two social roles with established social hierarchy)
No one was allowed to leave the stimulated prison
The prisoners and guards were encouraged to identify with their role (prisoner; not allowed to leave but can apply for parole; guards;reminded that they have complete power over the prisoners)
F - The guards and prisoners identified with their roles quickly
The guards began to torment and harass the prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways(divide-and-rule tactic –> playing the prisoners off against each other)—they later reported to have enjoyed doing it and relished in their new found power and control
The prisoners rebelled at first but after that they became subdued , depressed and anxious, they would only talk about the prison issues (forgetting about their old life) which meant that they truly believed that they were in a prison and weren’t acting due to demand characteristics
The guards identified more and more to their roles, they became more and more aggressive suggesting that the social roles became more internalised
Zimbardo had to stop the experiment after 6 days as to the intended 14 days
C- Social roles appear to have a strong influence on individuals behaviour (guards became brutal; prisoners became submissive)
strength in research into conformity to social roles
P - high control over key variables
E- They selected emotionally –stable participants and randomly assigned them to the roles of prisoners and guards
E -The researchers ruled out individual personality differences as an explanations of the findings
L-Increased the internal validity of the study so we can be much more confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on conformity about the riots in America
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P- participants believed prison was real
E- McDermott(2019) argues that the participants did behave as if the prison was real to them,90% of the prisoners’ conversation was about the prison life(eg they can’t leave the SPE because their sentences were not over)
E -Prisoner 416 later revealed that he believed that it was a real prison but it was just run by psychologists rather than the government
L-Suggest that SPE did replicate some social roles of prisoners and guards in a real prison giving the study a high internal validity as it can establish cause and effect
weakness in research into conformity to social roles
P - lack of realism
E- Banuazizi and Movahedi (1975) argued that the participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role
E-Participants knew that they were participating in a study and so might alter their behaviour–> demand or confounding
E-Participants’ performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to act ,Eg one of the guards claimed that he based his role on a character in the film Cool Hand Luke
L- Low ecological value
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P- exaggerated the power of roles
E- Fromm 1973 said that only one third of the guards actually behaved in a brutal manner. Another third tried to apply the rules fairly. The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners(sympathised, offer cigarettes)
E-most guards were able to resist the situational pressures to conform to a brutal role
L-Suggest that zimbardo overstated his view that SPE participants were conforming to social roles and minimised the influence of dispositional factors (eg personality)
