Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo

Question 1

what are some limitations of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 1

• ethical issues
• individual differences
• beta bias

Question 2

how did Zimbardo’s study break ethical guidelines

Answer 2

• prisoners left experiment early because of their adverse reactions to the physical and mental torment and guards felt anxiety and guilt as a result of their actions
• participants were not protected from harm during the experiment and the study should have finished earlier

Question 3

why are individual differences a limitation of ZImbardo’s research

Answer 3

• Zimbardo concludes situational factors lead to conformity to social roles and did not take into consideration individual differences like personality
• while some guards displayed sadistic behaviour, there guards helped the prisoners by providing support, sympathy or helping them regain their privileges
• shows dispositional factors can also play a role in conformity to social roles

Question 4

why does ZImbardo’s. research suffer from beta bias

Answer 4

he used a sample of 21 male participants so the results cannot be generalised to females as we cannot conclude they would have behaved in the same way, so the study lacks population validity

Question 5

what are some strengths of Zimbardo’s research

Answer 5

• real world applications
• findings used to explain real life events

Question 6

how does ZImbardo’s study have real world applications

Answer 6

• it has helped improve US prison system by providing changes in the way some prisoners are treated
• for example juvenile detainees are now not put in adult prisons before trial because of the increased risk of violence against them

Question 7

how are Zimbardo’s findings used to explain real life events

Answer 7

• ZImbardo’s findings can be used to explain events in Abu Ghraib which is a military prison in Iraq known for the torture and abuse of its prisoners by US soldiers in 2003 and 2004
• Zimbardo believed situational factors made the abuse and torture more likely: lack of training, boredom or no accountability were present in Abu Ghraib which is why the abuse and torture occurred