Conformity to social roles Flashcards
Who were the participants in Zimbardo’s study?
24 American male undergraduate students
What was Zimbardo’s aim?
To investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles in a simulated environment, and specifically, to investigate why ‘good people do bad things’.
What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?
The basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a simulated prison.
American student volunteers were paid to take part in the study. They were randomly issued one of two roles; guard or prisoner. Both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms.
Prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number.
Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses (to make eye contact with prisoners impossible and to reinforce the boundaries between the two social roles within the established social hierarchy). No one was allowed to leave the simulated prison.
Guards worked eight hour shifts, while the others remained on call. Prisoners were only allowed in the hallway which acted as their yard, and to the toilet. The guards were allowed to control such behaviour, in order to emphasise their complete power over the prisoners!
No physical violence was permitted, in line with ethical guidelines and to prevent complete overruling.
The behaviour of the participants was observed.
What did Zimbardo find from his study?
Identification occurred very fast, as both the prisoners and guards adopted their new roles and played their part in a short amount of time, despite the apparent disparity between the two social roles. Guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways – they later reported to have enjoyed doing so and relished in their new-found power and control.
Prisoners would only talk about prison issues (forgetting about their previous real life), and snitch on other prisoners to the guards to please them. This is significant evidence to suggest that the prisoners believed that the prison was real, and were not acting simply due to demand characteristics.
They would even defend the guards when other prisoners broke the rules, reinforcing their social roles as prisoner and guard, despite it not being real.
The guards became more demanding of obedience and assertiveness towards the prisoners while the prisoners become more submissive. This suggests that the respective social roles became increasingly internalised.
Evaluate the study (debriefing)
Participants were fully and completely debriefed about the aims and results of the study. Dealing with ethical issues in this way simply makes the study more ethically acceptable, but does not change the quality of the findings.
Evaluate the study (ecological validity)
Study suffered from demand characteristics. Participants knew they were participating in a study and therefore may have changed their behaviour. The participants also knew that the study was not real so they claimed that they simply acted according to the expectations associated with their role rather than genuinely adopting it.
Evaluate the study (population validity)
The sample only consisted of American male students and so the findings cannot be generalised to other genders and cultures, meaning it is androcentric and ethnocentric. For example, collectivist cultures such as china or Japan may be more conformist to their prescribed social roles because such cultures value the needs of the group over the needs of the individual. This suggests that such findings may be culture bound.
