conformity to social roles

Question 1

social roles definition

Answer 1

parts individuals play when they belong to social group and conformity roles occur when people behave in a certain way because they feel that it is expected of them in that role

Question 2

zimbardos standard prison experiment

Answer 2

used 24 male participants

Question 3

zimbardos procedure

Answer 3

set up mock rpsiion in basement of psychology department of standford uni
advertised for students willing to volunteer and selected those deemed to be emotionally stable
students randomly were assigned role of guard or prisioner
to heighten realism of study, arrested at homes and blindfolded, stripsearched and issued a uniform and number

Question 4

zimbardos findings

Answer 4

guards took up their roles with enthuasiam
behaviour became a threat to the prsioners psychokogical and physical health
study stooped after 6 days, rathe than intended 14
within 2 days, prisoners rebelled against their harsh treatemnt by guards

Question 5

findings

Answer 5

revealed power of situation to infleunce peorpls bheaviour
gaurds, prosioners and researcher all conformed to their roles
all found themselves behaving as if they were in real prison rather than a psychological study

Question 6

weakness of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 6

lack of research support

recent replication of the Stanford prison experiment, carried out by Reicher and Haslam
contradicts findings of Zimbardo
replicated by randomly assigning 15 men either the roles of guards or prisioners
in this replication, participants did NOT conform automatically to their roles
e.g guards did not idenfity with thsi statusm refused to impose their authority
prisoners identified as a grou to challenge guars authority
showing shift of power
weakness as shows results clearly contradict Zimbardo and suggest that conformity to social roles may not be automatic, as Zimbardo originally implied

Question 7

weakness of zimbardos study

Answer 7

ethical issues

heavility criticised for breaking several gudinlines in particilar protection from Harm
five of he prisoners left early dud to reactions to mental and physical tomrent
as well as that, guards reported feeling gulit and anxiety due to their actions
zimbardo acknoledged that study should have been stopped earlier
suggests he was repsonding kmore to role of superintendent of prison rather than researcher with resposibility of his particiapnts

Question 8

strength of zimbardos study

Answer 8

control

ability to control the vairbles within his study
e.g able to control selection of his participants
emotionally stable particopanst were assigned and randomly allocated role og guards or prisoners
one way theyr trieed to rule out individual perosnality differnces
having control thereforec increases the internal validity of the study
therefore, we can be more confident in drawing the conclusions about the infleunces of social roles on behaviour