Conformity to social roles

Question 1

What are social roles?

Answer 1

Social roles are the behaviours society expects from you

Question 2

How do social roles come about?

Answer 2

People hold different positions in society (e.g teen, grandaughter)
These come with expected sets of behaviour
We internalise these expectectations so that they shape our behaviour

Question 3

Zimbardo et al (1973) - Stanford prison experiment. Method, Results, Conclusion, Evaluation

Answer 3

Method:
- male students recruited + randomly given roles of either prisoner or guard
- prisoners given prisoner uniforms + numbers
- guards given guard uniforms + sunglasses
Results:
- Initally, guards tried to assert their authority, prisoners resisted, guards became cruel, prisoners became passive
- experiment had to end early due to participants becoming v distressed
Conclusion:
- guards and prisoners adopted social roles quickly, changing their behaviour = social roles influence behaviour
Evaluation:
+ controlled observation = control of extraneous variables
- artificial environment = lacks ecological validity
- observer bias (zimbardo became a guards himself)
- ethics = participants became very distressed

Question 4

Orlando (1973) FINISH

Answer 4

• mock psychiatric wardin a hospital for 3 days

- 29 hospital members volunteered to become ‘patients’, with another 22

Question 5

Reicher and Haslam (2006) - The BBC prison study; Method, result,s conclusion

Answer 5

Method:
- controlled observation in a mock prison, filmed for TV
- 15 male volunteers, 5 guards, 10 prisoners
- daily tests measuring depression, compliance with rules and stress
- prisoners knew that one of them, chosen at random, would because a guard after 3 days
- ethics committee had the power to stop the experiment at any time
Results:
- guards failed to form a united group + identify w/ their role
- didn’t always exercise power + uncomfortable with inequality
- first 3 days prisoners tried to act in a way to get guard status
- after, they became a stronger group, unequal system collapsed due to unwillingness of guards + strength of group
- day 6 - prisoners rebelled + all decided to live in democracy, also collapsed due to tension in the group, prisoners wanted to be leaders
- study abandoned early by the ethics committee