Conformity to Social Roles

Question 1

who conducted research into conformity to social roles?

Answer 1

Zimbardo (1973)

Question 2

what did zimbardo investigate?

Answer 2

how conformity is affected in different social roles

Question 3

what was Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 3

24 participants, all of which were the most ‘stable’ candidates based on psychological testing. The participants were randomly allocated the role of either guard or prisoner. The guards and prisoners then entered the mock prison which was set up in the basement of Stanford university.

Question 4

Zimbardo: what were the guards and prisoners given

Answer 4

The guards were given uniform, including reflective glasses. Whereas, the prisoners were ‘arrested’ from their own homes, given a dehumanising treatment, and were stropped and allocated numbers – to which they were referred to as.

Question 5

zimbardo evaluation points

Answer 5

1. Reicher and Haslam (2006) carried out a replicate study which contradicts Zimbardo’s study.
2. individual differences
3. ethics - protection from harm