Conformity to Social Roles

Question 1

What was Zimbardo interested in?

Answer 1

Conformity to social roles

Question 2

What experiment is Zimbardo famous for

Answer 2

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Question 3

Where was Zimbardo’s mock prison

Answer 3

In the basement of the Stanford psychology department

Question 4

How did Zimbardo select his participants

Answer 4

Volunteers were screened and 24 of the most mentally stable participants were selected

Question 5

How did Zimbardo allocate his sample

Answer 5

He randomly assigned them to the role of guard or prisoner

Question 6

How many participants took part in the Zimbardo Prison Study

Answer 6

24

Question 7

What happened to participants assigned as prisoners

Answer 7

They were unexpectedly arrested at their homes and processed in a realistic manner. On entry to the prison they were subject to a de-lousing procedure, given a prison shmock and given ID numbers. Prisonsers were given three meals a day,three supervised toilet trips and two visits a week

Question 8

What happened to participants assigned to the guard role

Answer 8

They were given uniforms, clubs, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses to prevent eyecontact. Guards only referred to prisoners using their ID numbers

Question 9

What role did Zimbardo take in the Stanford Prison experiment

Answer 9

The role of the prison superintendent

Question 10

How long was the Stanford Prison Experiment Planned to last

Answer 10

2 weeks

Question 11

How did the guards of the Stanford Prison experiment behave

Answer 11

In the first few days of the study they grew increasingly tyrannical and abusive towards prisoners. They woke prisoners in the night, forced them to clean toilets with their bare hands and had them carry out degrading activities.

Question 12

How enthusisatic were the guards in the stanford prison experiment

Answer 12

Some were so enthusiastic that they volunteered to do more hours without pay

Question 13

How did the prisoners of the Stanford Prison experiment behave

Answer 13

Prisoners became increasingly passive and accepted their conditions

Question 14

Why does it seem that the participants of the Stanford Prison Experiment forgot that they were acting

Answer 14

Even when they thought they were not being watched they still assumed the role of prisoner or guard. When one of the prisoners had enough they asked for parole rather than asking to leave

Question 15

How many prisoners had to be released early from the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 15

5 prisoners had to be released early becuase of extreme rections which started to appear after just two days

Question 16

How many days did the stanford prison experiment actually last

Answer 16

6 days

Question 17

Who had to intervene to stop the stanford prison experiment

Answer 17

Zimbardo’s wife

Question 18

What was the BBC prison study

Answer 18

The BBC broadcasted a similar study as a documentary, where men were randomly assigned to either prisoner or guard in a specially created prison

Question 19

What were the key findings of the BBC prison study

Answer 19

Participants did not conform to their assigned role as in Zimbardo’s study. Prisoners increasingly identified as a group and worked together to challenge the guard’s authority to create more egalitarian social relations. The guards also didn’t identify with their role, making them reluctant to impose their authority on prisoners. This shift in power led to the collapse of the prisoner guard system

Question 20

Why does the Stanford Prison experiment have real world appliaction

Answer 20

It can be used to explain the events of Abu Ghraib, an iraq military prison notorious for the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers in 2003-4. Zimbardo believed the guards were vicitms of situational factors such as lack of training, unrelenting boredom and lack of accountability which made abuse more likely. Zimbardo agued that these factors and the ability to misuse their power led to the real life abuses

Question 21

What factors may have been significant in causing the events of Abu Ghraib

Answer 21

Zimbardo believed that lack of training, unrelenting boredom and lack of accountability made abuse more likely

Question 22

How may demand characteristics play a role in the stanford prison experiment

Answer 22

Demand characteristics like the reflective sunglasses which de-individuated guards, the smock and ID numbers which de-humanised prisoners all may have prompted guard behaviour. Banuziz and Movahedi presented details of the study to a large sample of student who hadn’t heard of the study, and the vast majority guessed the aim of the study as well as the way that the guards would act (hostile). This suggests behaviour was not a result of conforming to social roles

Question 23

Discuss the ethics of the Stanford Prison experiment

Answer 23

The SPE is often criticised for being unethical, as the direct harm to participants goes directly against psychological guidelines, like the ones from the BPS. Zimbardo ackgnowledges it should have ended sooner but defends it on the basis that he followed the guidelines of the Standord ethics committee that approved it. He argues the study wasn’t unethical, but the participants were. Also the knowledge gained was greater than harm caused, as follow up interviews established that no long term harm had come as a result of the study, and it adanced the psychological field of conformity.
However Reicher and Haslam conducted the same basic set up as Zimbardo but took greater steps to minimise potential harm, creating a harsh and testing, but not harmful situtation.

Question 24

Who created a more ethical version of the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 24

Reicher and Haslam conducted the same basic set up as Zimbardo but took greater steps to minimise potential harm, creating a harsh and testing, but not harmful situtation.

Question 25

Who demonstrated that demand characteristics made the Stanford Prison Experiment predictable

Answer 25

Banuziz and Movahedi presented details of the study to a large sample of student who hadn’t heard of the study, and the vast majority guessed the aim of the study as well as the way that the guards would act (hostile)