conformity to social roles Flashcards
what was the aim of Zimbardo’s study?
to see whether people would conform to new social roles
- was brutality among guards due to their sadistic personalities, or the prison environemnt
where did the study take place (Z)
Stanford University - converted a basement into a mock prison
- role playing exercise
how many students did the study comprise of? (Z)
24 male college students
- paid $15 per day
- each applicant was interviewed thoroughly
how many prisoners and guards were there? (Z)
10 prisoners, 11 guards
- randomly assigned
- 2 reserves
- one dropped out
how were the prisoners treated?
like every other criminal
- arrested at their own homes without warning
- barred doors and windows, small cells
upon arrival, prisoners were …
stripped naked, deloused, had all their personal belongings removed and locked away, were given prison clothing and bedding
what were prisoners referred to as?
an ID number
- pps could only refer to themselves and others as their number
what were guards instructed to do?
whatever they thought was needed to maintain law and order
- command respect
- no physical violence
- they had billy clubs and sunglasses - couldn’t make eye contact
what were the results of the SPE?
he found that both prisoners and guards quickly IDENTIFIED with their social roles
- within days, prisoners rebelled but were stopped by the guards
- prisoners were dehumanised - guards became more assertive & agressive
- prisoners became more submissive
how long did the experiment actually run for?
6 days
- terminated on day 6 out of 14
- inhumane conditions
- 5 prisoners were released early due to distress
what was zimbardo’s conclusion?
people quickly conform to social roles, even when the role goes against their moral principles
- situational factors were largely responsible for the behaviour (none of the pps had demonstrated this behaviour previously)
strength of the SPE
good CONTROL over variables
- eg when selecting pps, they chose the most emotionally stable males
- each one randomly assigned a role - NO EXPERIMENTER BIAS
— if they behaved differently due to their role, the role was due to chance, so it had to be due to situation pressure
- increases INTERNAL VALIDITY - high control - more confident about drawing conclusions
advantage SPE - application
GOOD APPLICATION
- ABU GHRAIB - military prison
- notorious for torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers - 03-04
- Zimbardo argues the same conformity to social role effect was evident in both SPE and the AG prison
- Z argued the guards were victims of SITUATIONAL FACTORS
- lack of training, unrelenting boredom, no accountability to higher authorities, opportunity to misuse power were present in SPE and AG
- led to guards abusing prisoners in both situations
weakness of SPE - BBC
LACK OF RESEARCH SUPPORT
- Reicher and Hallam (2006) - partial replication of SPE on BBC
- findings were VERY DIFFERENT
- prisoners eventually took control
- researchers used the SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
— prisoners developed a SHARED IDENTITY - guards didn’t - identified themselves as members of a social group
- refused to accept the limits of their assigned roles as prisoners
weakness of SPE
ETHICAL ISSUES
- Z’s DUAL ROLES - superindendent & researcher
- spoke to student wanting to leave study as a superintendent instead of a researcher
DECEPTION
- lack of informed consent
- prisoners were arrested in their own homes - psychological distress
- HOWEVER, debriefing after the study and post experimental questionnaires were carried out
