Conformity to social roles Flashcards
Why did Zimbardo conduct his study?
-due to prison riots in America
-Zimbardo wanted to know why prison guards behave brutally was it due to their personality or social role
What are social roles?
The ‘parts’ people play as members of various social groups. These are accompanied with expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role
Outline the Stanford prison experiment
-Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford university
-selected 21 male students tested as emotionally stable
-Randomly assigned to play role of prisoner or guard
-encouraged to conform to their social roles e.g. through uniforms
What were the uniforms of the participants like?
prisoners = loose smock, cap & identified by number
guards= own uniforms, wooden clubs, handcuffs & mirror shades
What did wearing the uniforms create in P’s?
- a loss of personal identity (called de-individuation) which meant they were more likely to conform to social roles
What were the findings related to the guards?
-guards took up their roles with enthusiasm, treating the prisoners harshly
-harassed the prisoners constantly e.g. headcounts
-guards used ‘divide & rule’ tactics
-conducted frequent head counts
What were the findings related to the prisoners?
-rebelled after 2 days
-after put down prisoners became anxious, subdued & anxious
-two were released early on the fourth day
-prisoner went on hunger strike and was force fed
-Zimbardo ended the study after 6 days instead of 14
Conclusions related to social roles
-social roles have a strong influence on individuals behaviour
-such roles easily taken on by all participants
Explain exaggeration of social roles eval
-power of social roles exaggerate
-1/3 of guards actually behaved in a brutal manner
- another 1/3 tried to apply the rules fairly
-rest actively tried to help & support the prisoners e.g. sympathised, offered cigars
-most able to resist situational pressures to conform to brutal role
-Z overstated his viewed, minimised influence of dispositional factors
Explain lack of realism eval
-did not have realism of true prison
-Banuazizi & Movahedi. pp’s merely play acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role
-P’s performances based on stereotypes of prisoners & guards behaviour
-1 guard =based on role on brutal character from a film (cool hand Luke)
-findings=tell us little
What is a strength of Zimbardo SPE?
-high control over key variables
-selection of P’s emotionally stable randomly assigned to guard or prisoner
-way in which researchers ruled out individual personality differences
-if behaved differently but were in roles by chance= behaviour due to role itself
=high internal validity
