Conformity to social roles Flashcards
What was the aim of the Stanford prison experiment?
Philip Zimbardo questioned if ‘ordinary’ people were placed in a simulated prison environment where some of them were designated as guards or prisoners, how would they behave in their new social rules?
What was the procedure of the Stanford prison experiment?
Male volunteers from the US were physically and psychologically screened and the 24 most stable and randomly assigned them to either guard or prisoner.
The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home and on entry to the ‘prison’ they were given a prison uniform and assigned an ID number. The guards only referred to the prisoners by their number throughout the duration of the experiment. The guards were given uniforms,clubs, whistles and reflective sunglasses to prevent eye contact. The study was supposed to last 2 weeks.
What was the findings of the Stanford prison experiment?
Over the first two days of the study, the guards began to become abusive towards the prisoners.
The participants seemed to forget that it was only a psychological study. Even when they knew they were being watched, they still conformed to their role of guard and prisoner.
The study demonstrated that both guards and prisoners conformed to their social form. The guards became increasingly cruel and the prisoners because passive.
What was the aim of the BBC prison study - Reicher and Haslam, 2006.
To see how the participants adapted to different social roles following the Stanford prison experiment. They did this experiment to see if the results would differ or stay the same. It says that the groups were based on personality variables which suggests that they wanted to find out whether certain personality traits can affect how they comply towards their assigned social role.
What was the procedure of the BBC prison study?
Like the Stanford prison experiment, the BBC prison study randomly assigned 15 men to the role or a guard or prisoner and examined their behaviour. 15 males were split into 5 groups of 3 who were closely matched on key personality variable. 1 from each group was assigned as guard and the other 2 as a prisoners. The study lasted for 8 days.
What was the findings of the BBC prison study?
The key findings was that the participants did not conform automatically to their roles. Over the course of the study, the prisoners increasingly identified as a group and worked together to challenge the authority of the guards and established a more egalitarian set of social relations in the prison. The guards failed to identify with their role and made them reluctant to impose their authority on the prisoners.
What were the evaluations of research of social roles?
- Conformity to roles is not automatic
- There is a problem with demand characteristics
- Were these studies ethical?
Explain how the conformity to roles is not automatic
Zimbardo believed that the guards’ drift into sadistic behaviour was an automatic consequence of them embracing their role. However, in the SPE, guard behaviour varied from sadistic to, for a few, being good guards. These guards did not degrade or harass the prisoners and even did small favours for them. Haslam and Reicher (2012) argue that this shows the guards chose how to behave rather than blindly conforming to their social role.
Explain how demand characteristics is a problem
With experiments like the Stanford prison experiment, it has been said to reveal problems with demand characteristics. This is because the participants knew they were being experimented on, which may have caused them to act differently to how they normally would. Demand characteristics can completely alter the results and make them invalid as the participants are not presenting the researchers with their true reactions. However, in the Stanford prison experiment, the results showed that some of the participants forgot that they were in a experiment and started to show evidence of them believing they were real prisoners.
How were these studies unethical?
It is questioned whether the Stanford prison experiment is ethical. Zimbardo’s experiment was considered to be ethical as it followed the guidelines of the Stanford University ethical committee that had i approved. However the participants were not told in advance that their usual rights would be suspended. This shows that although the study was approved by the ethics committee, it was proven not to be ethical as participants were experiencing emotional distress throughout the experiment. Zimbardo attempted to make amends by carrying out debriefing sessions for several years after and later concluded that there were no lasting negative effects.
How was the Stanford prison experiment relevant to Abu Ghraib?
Same conformity to social role effect that was evident in the SPE was also evident in Abu Ghraib. The guards who committed the abuses were the victims of situational factors that made abuse more likely. Lack of training, unrelenting boredom and no accountability to higher authority were present in both Abu Ghraib and SPE. So, in both situations, the participants conforming to the role of the guards led to to prisoner abuses in both situations.
