Conformity to social roles Flashcards
Who studied conformity to social roles?
Zimbardo
What experiment did Zimbardo conduct?
Stanford Prison experiment
What is the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment?
Do prison guards behave brutally due to sadistic personalities or is it due to the situation that creates such behavior
What is the procedure leading up to the mock prison?
- Mock prison set up in psych department basement in Stanford uni
- Advertised for students willing to volunteer
- Selected the one deemed emotionally stable after psychological testing
- Randomly assigned role of prisoner or guard
- Prisoners ‘arrested’ from their homes and delivered to ‘prison’
- Blindfolded, strip-searched, deloused and issued a uniform and number
What’s the procedure within the mock prison?
- Regulated prisoners life
- 16 rules to follow
- Rules enforced by guards
- Guards worked in shifts, 3 at a time
- Prisoners called by number
- Guards had own uniform
- Had a club, handcuffs, key and mirrored shades
- Told they have complete power over prisoners
- Got to decide when they ate and toileted
What are the first set of findings?
- slow start
- guards took up role with enthusiasm
- guards behavior become a threat to prisoners physical and psychological health
- Study stopped after 6 days instead of 14
- within 2 days, prisoners had rebelled against harsh treatment
- prisoners tore uniforms
- shouted and swore at guards
- guards retaliated with fire extinguishers
What are strengths of SPE?
- Zimbardo and colleagues had control over variables
> selected emotionally stable participants
> randomly assigned groups (rule out individual personality differences) - Guards and prisoners acting different in randomly assigned roles = behavior due to situation pressure
- control increased internal validity
- confidence in concluding the influence of roles on behavior
- Zimbardo argued that prison was very real to participants
> quantitative data found that 90% of conservation about prison life
What’s the second set of findings?
- guards behavior became more brutal and aggressive, seemed to enjoy power
- guards constantly harasser prisoners
- frequent head counts even in middle of night
- guards created lots of opportunities to enforce rules and punish prisoners
- prisoners became depressed, subdued and anxious
- 1 prisoner released on 1st day - signs of psychological disturbance
- 2 more released on 4th day
- 1 went on hunger strike (shunned)
What conclusions did Zimbardo make?
Revealed power that the situation has to influence behavior
- guards, prisoners and researchers conformed to their role
- roles taken on easily
What psychologists critique SPE?
Banuazizi and Mohavedi
Fromm
BBC
What did Banuazizi and Mohavedi say?
Participants were playacting, not genuine conformity
- performances were based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards were supposed to act
- One guard committed to basing his role on a brutal character from ‘cool hand luke’
- explains why prisoners noted as they thought that’s what real prisoners did
What did Fromm say?
- accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation
> minimized the role of personality factors - Only 1/3 of the guards acted in a brutal manner
- 1/3 were keen on applying rules fairly
- rest actively tried to help prisoners by offering cigs or reinstating privileges
- suggest Zimbardo conclusion may be over stated
- differences in guards behavior = able to exercise right and wrong choices despite situation pressure
What did BBC do?
- different findings, prisoners took control and subjected the guards harassment and disobedience
- social identity theory, guards failed to develop a shared social identity
- prisoners actively identified as mentors of a social group, refusal to accept limits of assigned prisoner roles
What are ethical issues for SPE?
- one participant wanted to leave, went to speak to Zimbardo, conversation based on the basis that he was a prisoner, not a participant
