Conformity to Social Roles

Question 1

What are the aims of Stanford Prison Experiment?

Answer 1

To study the extent to which people would conform to the roles of prisoners and guards in a prison simulation

Question 2

Describe the procedure of the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 2

• Zimbardo used a basement of Stanford University as a mock prison then male student volunteers were psychologically and physically screened and the 24 most stable were randomly assigned to the role of prisoner or ‘guard’
• Prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home and were given a uniform and an ID number. Guards referred to prisoners by numbers, which helped with the process of deindividuation.
• Guards were given uniforms, clubs, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses (preventing eye contact).
• Study was planned to last 2 weeks

Question 3

Describe the results from the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 3

• Guards grew increasingly tyrannical and abusive toward the prisoners and made them carry out degrading activities.
• On the 2nd day, prisoners organised a protest about the conditions. Guards worked extra hours and developed a plan to stop the riot, using fire extinguishers
• Participants forgot they were in a study as even when they didn’t know they were being watched, they still conformed to their roles.
• 5 prisoners were released early due to their extreme emotional reactions, and the study ended after 6 days.

Question 4

Describe the effects on guards that the Stanford Prison Experiment had

Answer 4

• Many seemed to enjoy the new-found power and control that went with the uniform.
• They punished prisoners with little justification and became increasingly cruel and sadistic, verbally insulted the prisoners
• Continued to be authorative even when they believed the cameras weren’t on

Question 5

Describe the conclusion of the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 5

• The significance of the environment influenced behaviour and their reactions were extreme as they conformed to social roles
• Deindividuation helps to explain the behaviour of participants, especially the guards. It’s a state where you lose sense of your identity as you’re immersed in the norms of the group. Guards may have been sadistic as they didn’t feel what happened was down to them personally, it was a group norm.

Question 5

Describe the effects on prisoners that the Stanford Prison Experiments had

Answer 5

• They became increasingly passive, obedient and didn’t question the guards.
• They had a flattened mood and half the prisoners showed signs of depressions and acute anxiety.

Question 6

Describe the procedure of the BBC Prison Study

Answer 6

• Reicher and Haslam randomly assigned men to the role of guard or prisoners and examined their behaviour.
• 15 male participants were divided into 5 groups, were closely matched on key personality variables, and from each group, 1 was randomly chosen to be a guard and the other 2 prisoners.
• The study was to run for 8 days

Question 7

Describe the findings of the BBC Prison Study

Answer 7

• Participants didn’t conform automatically to their role as had happened in the SPE.
• Prisoners increasingly identified as a group and worked collectively to challenge the authority of the guards
• Guards failed to identify with their role and were reluctant to impose authority. This led to a shift of power and the collapse of the prisoner-guard system

Question 8

Give evaluation for conformity to social roles (conformity isn’t automatic)

Answer 8

• Haslam and Reicher challenged that the guards’ sadistic behaviour was an automatic consequence of them embracing their role
• They pointed out that in the SPE guard behaviour varied from fully sadistic to a few ‘good’ guards, who even did small favours for prisoners.
• They argued this shows that the guards chose how to behave, rather than blindly conforming, as suggested by Zimbardo. Therefore, conformity to roles isn’t automatic

Question 9

Give evaluation for conformity to social roles (demand characteristics)

Answer 9

• Banuazizi and Movahedi argued behaviour in the SPE was a consequence of demand characteristics
• They presented the SPE procedure to students who’d never heard of the study. Majority guessed the aim of the experiment was to show that ordinary people assigned roles would act like real prisoners and guards.
• Suggests that the behaviour of Zimbardo’s guards and prisoners wasn’t due to a ‘compelling prison environment’, but due to powerful demand characteristics in the experimental situation itself.

Question 10

Give evaluation for conformity to social roles (conclusion of study)

Answer 10

• Zimbardo concluded from the SPE that people can descend into tyrannical behaviour as they unthinkingly conform to their prescribed role.
• He claimed that the brutality of the guards in the SPE was a natural consequence of being allocated the role of ‘guard’ and the power associated
• However, Reicher and Haslam showed with their BBC study that the guards were reluctant to be authoritative and didn’t automatically conform.

Question 11

Give evaluation for conformity to social roles (ethics of the study)

Answer 11

• Zimbardo’s study is seen as unethical, despite following the guidelines of the Stanford University ethics committee at the time.
• Zimbardo acknowledges that the study should’ve been stopped before as many were emotionally distressed. He attempted to make amends by carrying out debriefs for several years after and concluded that there were no lasting negative effects
• Recognising the harm in these studies, Reicher and Haslam took greater steps to minimise the potential harm in their study, by creating a harsh and testing situation but not harmful.