Conformity To Social Roles By Zimbardo

Question 1

Stanford prison experiment (SPE)

Answer 1

• wanted to find out whether brutality reported among guards in America was bc of sadistic personalities or bc of the prison environment
• it could be bc of power structure or bc of prisoner and guard conflict
  AIM: to see whether people will conform to social roles or not
  METHOD:
• converted basement of Stanford uni into a mock prison
• asked for volunteers to participate in a study to see the psychological effects of prison life
• more than 70 volunteered, eliminated those with medical conditions
• ended up with 24 male college students who were paid 15 dollars a day
• pps were randomly assigned roles of prisoner and guard
• finally there were 11 guards and 10 prisoners (more guards)
• guards worked in sets of 3, 8hr shifts
• prisoners were treated equally like every other criminal, arrested in own homes, without warning, ‘booked’
• they were blindfolded
• they were deloused, stripped naked, all possessions locked away, wore prison clothes and were referred to with a number
• ID numbers made them anonymous
• had a nylon cap on
• they were told no physical violence
  RESULTS:
• quickly identified each roles
• prisoners rebelled and crushed guards
• guards dehumanised prisoners and made them clean toilets with bare hands
• prisoners became submissive
• 5 were released early bc of mental torment
• was meant to run for 2 weeks but got cut short after day 6, bc his girl told him to stop
  CONLCUSION: people conform quickly to social roles, even when the roles are very controversial. He found that situational factors were largely responsible for behaviours

Question 2

Findings

Answer 2

Settled into it in a short time

Prisoners were tormented with petty tasks and became submissive and dependent

One person had to leave after 36 hours bc of extreme torment and he had uncontrollable bursts of screaming, got diagnosed with deep depression

Zimbardo was superintendent

Question 3

Good evaluation

Answer 3

• zimbardo had some level of control over variables, such as selecting pps. Each pp was also assigned a guard randomly, no experimenter bias. Increases internal validity
• relatable to Abu Ghraib, good application,
  Abu ghraib - USA military police committed serious human rights violation against Iraqi prisoners. Zimbardo says the same conformity to social role effect was present there as well. Prisoners were out through immense torture.

Question 4

Bad evaluation

Answer 4

• lack of research support. BBC prison study was carried out by reicher and haslam (2006). Their findings were different to Zimbardo. The prisoners took charge eventually and harassed the guards. There was use of the social identity theory to explain the outcome. The prisoners actively formed a group and identity with each other.
• ethical issues, there were major issues, one occasion, the pp spoke to Zimbardo in his role as superintendent. The conversation was talked thru in a biased way, Zimbardo reposnded in the role of a superintendent and denied it.
• another ethical issue is deception or lack of informed consent. The prisoners didn’t know they would be getting arrested in their own could cause psychological distress. Although, debriefing sessions were held after the experiment and at yearly intervals.

Question 5

How does he defend it

Answer 5

• the ONLY deception was getting arrested, as the prisoners didn’t know about it, because approval wasn’t given by the police a few minutes before.
• when he found out how much the prisoners hated it, he abandoned the study
• debriefing sessions were held