Conformity to social roles-Zimbardo

Question 1

Outline the Procedure of Zimbardo’s SPE (1973)

Answer 1

set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford Uni

-21 voulunteered students who were classified as emotionally stable from interviews

• randomly assigned roles of guard or prisoner with different uniforms, guard = loose smock and cap and guard = baton + handcuffs (made them deindividuated and group identity)
• prisoners were also only referred to as numbers and were randomly arrested at home

-Planned for 2 weeks but ended after 6 days

-Zimbardo made himself super-intendent of the prison

Question 2

Outline findings of Zimbardos SPE

Answer 2

-First 2 days guards abused their power(head counts) with enthusiasm which led to the prisoners rebelling- ripped uniforms off and guards responded with fire extinguishers

-after rebellion was put down prisoners were subdued and anxious

• 1 released because he showed signs of psychological distress and 2 more left on the 4th day
• 1 went on a food strike and after the guards failures of force feed him they put him in the hole
• Zimbardo ended the study early on the 6th day instead of the intended 14

Question 3

Outline the conclusion of Zimbardos SPE

Answer 3

• social roles influenced peoples behaviours
• guards = brutal
• prisoners = submissive

Question 4

What are the strengths of SPE

Answer 4

-they had control over the variables(reduces extraneous variables) = making it internally valid, there most obvious example being the selection of participants(removed participant variables and researcher bias) ; emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to roles, which eliminates the cause of behaviour being individual personality differences

Question 5

What are the weaknesses of SPE?

Answer 5

-Ethical issues- prevention of harm was not followed

Population: small sample - white m/c americans who volunteered

-Lack of realism: Ali Banuazizi + Siamek Mohavedi (1975) argued they were play acting- one guard claimed he based his behaviour of brutal guard from film cool hand luke.-
Realism: HOWEVER, Mcdermott (2019) argues that the participants berhaved as if they were in prison- 90% of participants conversations were about prison life and that they could not leave until their sentence was over.Also prisoner ‘416’ spoke about how he thought prison was real. Therefore this suggest they were able to replicate

-Exaggerates power roles: 1/3 of guards actually behaved brutally 1/3 acted fairly and rest sympathised and offered cigarettes. so most resisted conformity to social roles. Therefore most guards were able to resist

-Dual role of Zimbardo: Zimbardo was superintendent during the study which makes it a partcipant study which means his behaviour can directly affect the study making it less valid.- Investigator effects