Conformity to Social Roles Investigated by Zimbardo

Question 1

Social Roles

Answer 1

Behaviours that are expected of people in certain situations as well as expecting behaviours from certain types of people.

Question 2

Summary of Experiment

Answer 2

24 men from a student population were recruited and given $15 every day for 2 weeks. Done in the basement of a university. Each one was assigned as either a guard or a prisoner. Some people quit and had drastically altered behaviour during the experiment. The experiment started with not a lot happening, but later got shut down after 5 days due to the danger the prisoners were in.

Question 3

Good people put in an evil place

Answer 3

Those in power will use and abuse their power, those in a subordinate role will submit to authority. It is the power of social situations as opposed to the qualities of people that creates evil behaviour.

Question 4

Criticisms of Zimbardo’s Research

Answer 4

Not a realistic setting, guards had no guidelines so could do what they wanted, guards knew it was an experiment so could have the researchers take responsibility for their actions.