Conformity To Social Roles

Question 1

Outline the procedure of Zimbardo’s study.

Answer 1

-The basement of Stanford university was converted into a prison which was made to feel very real.

-All pps were American middle-class, white undergraduate students who were selected through volunteer sampling.

• Zimbardo allocated the pps randomly to one of either role: prisoner or guard. Both were made to wear uniforms and guards were given props to reinforce their power. Prisoners were referred to as numbers.
• The guards worked 8 hour shifts whilst other guards remained on call. No physical violence was permitted - everything had to remain in the ethical guidelines.
• Zimbardo himself was the prison superintendent and intended to carry out this study for 2 weeks however only managed to keep the study going for 6 days.

Question 2

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 2

-Identification occurred very fast, both guards and prisoners conformed to their roles. Guards began to torment and harass prisoners. Prisoners would only talk about prison issues and snitch on each other to appease the guards.

-This suggest that the prisoners believed the prison was in fact real and were not acting simply due to demand characteristics. The guards progressively became more demanding of obedience to their authority while the prisoners became more submissive - suggest the social roles became internalised.

Question 3

What is one strength of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 3

1.Good internal validity.
Zimbardo checked the pps to ensure they were emotionally stable before the experiment. Additionally, the setting was artificial and highly controlled and so the researchers had control over all variables and could eliminate and minimise the possible effects of extraneous and confounding variables.

Question 4

What are two limitations of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 4

1.Lacks research support.
Reicher and Haslam: partially replicated Zimbardo’s experiment. Found that instead of trying to appease the guards, prisoners instead became close, forming groups in which they became aggressive towards the guards together.
Unlike in the SPE, guards were uncomfortable to use the power they had and so were reluctant to be harsh therefore, the guards did not have a natural tendency to be authoritative.

2. Accused of exaggerating the effect the situation has on influencing behaviour.
   -only one third of the guards behaved in a brutal manner.
   -When other psychologists replicated the experiment, found that guards failed to develop a shared social identity as a group.
   Brutality in Zimbardo’s study was due to a shared social identity as a cohesive group rather than conformity to their social roles.
   Therefore in other experiments, guards did not share a social identity and so were more likely to be less aggressive and less likely to use their authority.