conformity to social roles Flashcards
Social roles definition
behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status
what was the study into conformity to social roles
Stanford prison experiment
who conducted the stanford prison experiment
Zimbardo
Procedure
A mock prison was set up in the basement of the univeristy.
Male student volunteers were psychologically and physically screened ,the 24 most stable of these were randomly assigned to either play the role of the prisoner and guard.
The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home and when they arrived they were put through a delousing procedure ,given prison uniforms, and an ID number.
Prisoners were allowed certain rights (3 meals, 3 supervised toilet trips,two visits per week)
The guards were given uniform,clubs,whistles and wore reflective sunglasses to prevent eye contact.
Zimbardo played the role of Prison superintendent.
The study was planned to last two weeks.
Findings
First few days: the guards were increasingly tyrannical and abusive towards the prisoners.
eg: woke up prisoners in the night and forced them to clean the toilets with their bare hands.
Some volunteered to do extra hours without pay.
Even when they were unaware of being watched ,they still conformed to their roles.
5 prisoners had to be released early because of their extreme reactions(crying,rage,anxiety).These symptoms appeared after 2 days.
The study was terminated after 6 days after the researchers were reminded that this was a psychological study and did not justify the abuse to participants.
The study demonstrated that both positions conformed to their social roles.The guards became more cruel and sadistic and the prisoners became increasingly passive and accepting of their plight.
AO3: conformity to social roles
lim: ethics
lim: demand characteristics
str: RWA
lim: not automatic
lim: ethics
Often criticised for being unethical, despite following the guidlines of the Stanford University ethics community
Zimbardo acknowledges that the study should have been stoped earlier bc of emotional distress
Zimbardo’s duo roles (superintendent and lead researcher) caused ethical issues,at one point a student who wanted to leave the experiment spoke to Zimbardo in his role as the superintendent,Zimbardo responded concerned about the running of his prison rather than as a researcher with responsibilities to his participants.
Debriefing was carried out for several years after the experiment and it was concluded that there were no long lasting effects.
lim: demand characteristics
Behaviour of participants was more of a consequence of demand characteristics
Presented details of SPE proc to a large sample of students who hadnt heard of study, majority guessed purpose correctly and predicted guards would act hostile
suggests behaviour of guards and prisoners was a response to powerful demand characteristics in the experimental situation
lim: not automatic
Conformity to roles is not automatic-
Zimbardo believed that the guards sadistic behaviour was a direct consequence of them embracing their role,which stopped them from realising their wrongdoings.
However ,only about a 1/3 of the guards behaved in a brutal manner.Some guards didn’t degrade prisoners and sympathised with them ,even doing small favours for them.
Haslam and Reicher(2012) argue that this shows that the guards chose how to behave rather than blindly conforming to their social role.
This shows how dispositional influences were ignored.
str: RWA
Zimbardo argues conformity to sr can be used to explain events in Abu Gharaib (military prison in Iraq where US soldiers tortures Iraqi prisoners in 2003 and 2004)
Believed that the guards who committed these abuses were victims of situational factors that made abuse more likely
These situational factors (eg lack of training, boredom, no accountability to higher authority) were present at both SPE and Abu Gharaib
= these factors combined w an opportunity to misuse the power assoc w the role of the guard led to prisoner abuses in both situations
