Conformity to social roles Flashcards
What is meant by the term ‘conformity to social roles’?
A type of conformity that represents identification. A person adopts a particular behaviour or belief while being in a particular social situation.
Key study: Zimbardo
Zimbardo (1973) - The Stanford prison experiment.
Aim: To examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner in a mock experiment and whether the behaviour shown was due to dispositional (people themselves) or situational(environment) factors.
Method: 21 male university students were paid $15 an hour and were assigned randomly to the social roles of a prisoner or a prison guard. The basement of Stanford university was used as the mock prison. The prisoners were arrested by real police, were given chains around their ankles and a numbered smocked to wear. Prison guards had uniforms with dark reflective sunglasses, handcuffs and a truncheon. The guards had to run the prison without using physical violence for two weeks
Results: Prisoners and guards quickly identified with their social roles. Prisoners began to rebel and guards dehumanised them by growing abusive, forcing them to clean toilets with their bare hands. Prisoners eventually became submissive. Five prisoners were released early from the experiment due to their adverse reactions eg. crying, extreme anxiety. The experiment only lasted for 6 days because conditions became inhumane.
Conclusion: Zimbardo concluded that people conform quickly to social roles even if it goes against their moral principles. He also concluded situation factors were largely responsible for the behaviour found since none of the participants ever demonstrated these behaviours before.
Evaluate Zimbardo
- His experiment was criticised for breaking many ethical guidelines especially protection from harm. Five of the prisoners left early due to their adverse reactions to the physical and mental torment. Some of the guards reported feeling anxiety and guilt as a result of their actions.
- His experiment has beta bias since he only used males. His results cannot be generalised to females.
