Conformity To Social Roles- Zimbardo Flashcards
What is a social role?
Expected behaviours of one who occupies a given social position/status.
What is obedience?
The extent to which one follows the commands of an authority figure.
What was the aim of Zimbardo (1971)?
To investigate how readily people would conform to social roles in a stimulated environment.
What was the method of Zimbardo (1971)?
Volunteer sample of 70 students, 24 of which were deemed mentally able to participate.
They were randomly assigned roles (‘guard’ or ‘prisoner’).
-Prisoners were chained and assigned numbers.
-Guards were given handcuffs and sunglasses.
What were the results of Zimbardo (1971)?
-Identification occured quickly.
-Prisoners talked about prison life in 90% of their conversations, forgot about previous lives.
-Guards asserted dominance to the extent that prisoners defended guards against rebels.
-3 prisoners had to leave, it ended in 6 days (there were 14 planned days).
What was the conclusion of Zimbardo (1971)?
Power of the situation will influence people’s conformity to social roles.
What are strengths to Zimbardo (1971)?
+Controlled variables: rules out individual differences, increasing validity.
What are weaknesses to Zimbardo (1971)?
-Lack of realism: one guard based his actions off of a movie character (Cool Hand Luke). Guards acted without fear of consequences. Prisoners are normally criminals.
-Dispositional factors: only a minority of guards acted brutally. Zimbardo was accused of overstating his conclusion.
-Ethical issues: deception, harm, inconsistency in right to withdraw.
What is a real life application for Zimbardo’s study?
The Holocaust.
