Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.

Question 1

what is a social role?

Answer 1

a part that an individual plays as a member of a social group, which meets the expectations of a situation.

Question 2

Outline Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison study.

Answer 2

-75 males university students volunteering but paid $15 a day.
-21 students rated as most physically and mentally stable were selected.
-Randomly assigned to be guard or prisoner.
-Prisoners were arrested at home and dehumanised.
-Guards became sadistic and prisoners became submissive.
-After 36 hours 1 prisoner was released after suffering fits.
The experiment ended after 6 days.

Question 3

What did Zimbardo conclude?

Answer 3

• Situational hypothesis was favoured due to participants not showing this sort of behaviour before.
• Individuals conform to the social roles expected in that situation.
• Social roles were like those seen in media sources.

Question 4

What was Zimbardo’s aim?

Answer 4

• To investigate the extent to which people would conform to their roles in a prison simulation.
• To test the dispositional Vs the situational hypothesis.

Question 5

what were the 2 hypothesis?

Answer 5

• Dispositional.

- Situational.

Question 6

What was the dispositional hypothesis?

Answer 6

-it is due to the nature of people in prisons, it attracts guards who are ‘bad seeds’ with aggressive and sadistic traits.

Question 7

What was the situational hypothesis?

Answer 7

-it s due to the ‘prison soil’ or the environmental factors which make guards cruel and prisoners submissive.