Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo

Question 1

Social roles

Answer 1

The behaviours expected by an individual who occupies a given social position or status.

Question 2

Who did research into social roles?

Answer 2

Zimbardo 1973

Question 3

What did Zimbardo aim to test?

Answer 3

Whether ordinary people would conform to the social roles of prison guard and prisoner in a mock prison as part of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE).

Question 4

How did Zimbardo gather his sample?

Answer 4

He advertised for male students to take part (volunteer sample)

Question 5

How many people took part in the sample?

Answer 5

24 most emotionally stable.

Question 6

How were the participants allocated to the roles?

Answer 6

Random allocation

Question 7

How were the prisoners brought to the experiment?

Answer 7

They were arrested at their home by the local police and they were blindfolded, strip searched, deloused, given a uniform and a number.

Question 8

What were the guards given?

Answer 8

Uniforms, wooden clubs, handcuffs, keys and wore reflective sunglasses (to prevent eye contact).

Question 9

What were the guards told they had?

Answer 9

Complete power over the prisoners.

Question 10

What did the guards refer to the prisoners with?

Answer 10

Their number

Question 11

What role did Zimbardo take on?

Answer 11

Prison superintendent

Question 12

How long was the study planned to last for?

Answer 12

2 weeks

Question 13

How did the guards behave towards the prisoners?

Answer 13

They became increasingly abusive. They would wake them in the middle of the night and forced them to clean the toilets with their bare hands.

Question 14

What happened in the prisoners within 2 days?

Answer 14

They rebelled against their harsh treatment by ripping their uniforms and shouting and swearing at the guards but the guards responded with fire extinguishers.

Question 15

What did the prisoners become after the rebellion was out down?

Answer 15

Subdued, depressed and anxious.

Question 16

How many prisoners were allowed to leave the study early?

Answer 16

5

Question 17

After how many days was the study terminated?

Answer 17

6 days

Question 18

What did the study show?

Answer 18

That both the guards and the prisoners conformed to the social roles

Question 19

What did all the participants appear to lose?

Answer 19

Their sense of personal identity. This was shown through the prisoners referring to each other by their numbers rather then their names (de-individuation). The guards became increasingly aggressive and the prisoners became increasingly passive and accepting of their fate (Dehumanisation)

Question 20

What did Zimbardo conclude?

Answer 20

Social roles do have a strong influence over behaviour.

Question 21

What are the evaluation points for SPE?

Answer 21

\+ high degree of control
- demand characteristics 
- replication conduction for the BBC
- major ethical issues 
\+ practical applications

Question 22

One strength of ZImbardos SPE was that it had a high degree of control

Answer 22

E: Zimbardo had control over who was selected (i.e. only emotionally stable participants) and randomly allocating participants to social roles.
E: by randomly allocating roles, Zimbardo was able to rule out individual differences as an explanation because if the guards and prisoners behaved very differently, this must have been due to the pressures of the situation rather then their personalities.
L: high internal validity

Question 23

One criticism of the SPE is that it suffered from demand characteristics

Answer 23

E: some may have been play acting
E: some researchers presented details of the SPE to a group of students who had never heard of It before, they correctly guessed that ordinary people would start to act like prisoners and guards. One guard even based his role on the brutal character from cool hand Luke.
L: reduces the internal validity.

Question 24

Evidence against comes from a replication conduction from the BBC

Answer 24

E: Reicher and Haslam 2006 found it was the prisoners and not the guards who eventually took control of the prison.
E: prisoners developed a shared social identity which allowed them to act with a shared purpose, whilst the guards did not (social identity theory)
L: This suggests that we do not automatically conform to social roles and other factors (such as developing a shared group identity) play a role too.

Question 25

A criticism of the SPE is that it raised major ethical issues

Answer 25

E: Although there was no deception involved and participants did give consent, it is questionable whether the participants were fully aware of the possible harm they might suffer.
E: ZImbardo that acknowledges study should have stopped sooner (lack fo protection from harm) as some of the participants were experiencing severe emotional distress and some argue that this harm should have been anticipated.
L: goes against the ethical code of conduct

Question 26

One strength of the research is that it may have practical applications

Answer 26

E: helped to highlight the ways in which ordinary emotionally stable people an behave extremely differently in the right social context and could be used to help prevent brutality in other prison like context
E: similar Social pressures may have played a role in the brutality shown at Abu Ghraib prison.
L: help prevent future brutality by having a greater awareness of the issues raised.