Conformity To Social Role: Zimbardo

Question 1

What is conformity to social roles

Answer 1

The extent to which people behave in the expected manner according to their social role

Question 2

What was the procedure of the Stanford prison experiment

Answer 2

• 21 male students gathered by volunteer sampling, Mentally and physically healthy (they were screened)
• 11 prisoners were realistically arrested, blindfolded, had their fingerprints taken, stripped, deloused and given a uniform with a number
• 10 guards were given uniforms, reflective sunglasses, billy clubs, whistles
• The students were randomly allocated a role
• Guards were given complete power over prisoners aside from physical harm

Question 3

What were the findings of the SPE

Answer 3

• guards adopted their roles immediately and were harsh to the prisoners
• prisoners protested by day 2, ripping their uniforms and swearing at the guards
• the guards responded to this with divide-and-rule tactics in which they harassed the prisoners with regular headcounts, push-ups, solitary confinement etc. (actively attempting to punish the prisoners shows that they were conforming to their social roles)
• prisoners became depressed and anxious with one participant dropping out by day 3 due to signs of psychological harm
• 2 more prisoners leaving on day 4
• prisoners started to hunger strike and the experiment was stopped by day 6 because the guards were being brutal and aggressive
• prison chaplain, visitors and Zimbardo conformed to their social roles

Question 4

What were the conclusions of the SPE?

Answer 4

• social roles had a strong influence on the behaviour of participants and even the researcher
• the participants started to really believe they were in a prison
• guards becoming increasingly sadistic and prisoners becoming more passive
• deindividuation plays a large role in conforming to social roles
• Zimbardo acting as a superintendent
• The prison chaplain acting as if it was a real prison rather than a psychological study

Question 5

Strengths of the SPE

Answer 5

+ Highly controlled as participants were screened to ensure healthiness
+ Random allocation reduces the likelihood of individual differences
+ Quantitative data shows 90% of conversations were about prison life showing participants fully immersed themselves within their social roles

Question 6

Weaknesses of the SPE

Answer 6

• Big ethical issues including psychological harm lack of fully informed consent and the right to withdraw being made difficult
• demand characteristics, thought that participants may have been acting, they were ordinary people acting how they thought they should act in their social roles
• this psychological harm was persistent throughout the whole experiment from the moment they were realistically arrested
• Cultural or gender bias, beta bias as only men were used in the study so we cannot generalise the findings of the experiment to women as we can’t say that they would conform to social roles in the same way. it ignores any potential difference that could occur between men and women.
• BBC study found opposite findings when prisoners overthrew the guards
• could be said that prisoners may have been acting Or imitating behaviour seen within the media