Conformity to social roles Flashcards
1
Q
Who investigated conformity into social roles?
A
Zimbardo
2
Q
Outline Zimbardo’s aim:
A
To investigate how readily people conformed to the role of a guard and a prisoner in a prison simulated role playing exercise
3
Q
Outline Zimbardo’s Method:
A
- The experiment was conducted in Stanford universities prison basement.
- 24 male university students made up the sample and it was a volunteer sample out of 70 applicants
- they were divided into 2 roles through random allocation, as either a guard or a prisoner.
- The prisoners were arrested at their homes, taken to the local police station to get their fingerprints taken and blindfolded to be taken to Stanford universities basement. They were then stripped naked and deloused. they were given a uniform and were identified with number and not their name.
- they were given three meals a day, three supervised toilet trips at the same time everyday as a result of a strict curfew.
- guards were given shades to make eye contact with the prisoners impossible, handcuffs and issued a khaki uniform. They would be given instructions on how to work their 8 hour shifts .
- Zimbardo acted as the prison warden and observed the behaviour of the participants at the same time.
4
Q
Outline Zimbardo’s findings
A
- Within the first few days guards became aggressive which is shown through them making prisoners do push ups and giving them harsh punishments. Prisoners became submissive and took the prison rules seriously
- Participants knew they were taking part in a study and still conformed to social roles
- 3 prisoners were released early due to them showing high distress
- study was terminated after 6 days
5
Q
Outline Zimbardo’s conclusion
A
People will readily conform to social roles as they are expected to play especially if the role is strongly stereotyped
6
Q
AO3 for Zimbardo’s study
A
- Lacks population validity/androcentric
- ethical issues
- lacks ecological validity
