Conformity to social roles - Zimbardo (1971)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To investigate conformity to social roles by role-playing as either a prisoner or a guard and to find out if the conforming behaviour was due to the nature of the person (dispositional factors) or the prison context (situational factors).

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

• Involved 24 male American undergraduate volunteer.
• Randomly allocated role of a prisoner or guard.
• This was a controlled observational study which was made as realistic as possible, eg, the ‘prisoners’ were arrested at their homes and taken to the police station before being transferred to the prison. Once at the mock prison, they were deloused, issued with a prison uniform, and an ID number which they were then addressed by.
• Guards were also issued with uniforms and 16 rules, which they were asked to enforce to maintain a ‘reasonable degree of order’.
• Interaction between prisoners and guards, mood state, self perception, and coping behaviour were observed as indicators of conformity.
• Data collected via videotape, audiotape, direct observation, questionnaires, and interviews.

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

• An extremely high level of conformity to social roles observed in both the guards and the prisoners.
• Guards conformed to a sadistic role, eg, by readily issuing punishments for prisoners misbehaving.
• Initially, punishment involved loss of privileges but later punishments included food and sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and humiliation (eg, cleaning the toilet with their bare hands).
• After initial resistance, prisoners became passive, excessively obedient, showed a flattered mood, and distorted perception of self.
• 5 prisoners released early due to extreme emotional disturbance.
• Study stopped on the 6th day instead of running 2 weeks as planned.

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

• The research demonstrates the strength of conformity as a form of social influence.
• Reports after the study showed that participants felt they had acted out of character, and personality tests indicated no significant differences between the guards’ and prisoners’ personalities.
• These findings support a situational explanation of social influence rather than a dispositional one.

Question 5

Weakness

Answer 5

The research lacks ecological validity as the experiment wasn’t conducted in a real prison and doesn’t have the traditional structure of a prison, eg, with guards in different duties. Guards’ had also not received any former training and the prisoners’ had done nothing to feel guilty.

The consequence of this is that findings cannot be applied to a real-life setting as in this scenario, it was only role-play being performed and hence the research lacks the requirements to make this experiment completely realistic.

Question 6

Strength

Answer 6

If the prisoners were simply play-acting, why did they show symptoms of stress so severe that the experiment had to be stopped after only 6 days. Also, why did guards’ aggression towards the prisoners steadily intensify. Doesn’t this indicate that the guards became increasingly involved in their roles and thus that they were identifying with their roles?

Question 7

Weakness

Answer 7

The research lacks population validity as there was a small amount of participants so it doesn’t form a proper prison; guards were also more likely to pick on the same prisoners as they’re exposed to them much more. In addition, the participants were all 24 year old, male, American volunteers.

Considering that they were all young and male, the experiment can be classified as androcentric and we cannot apply the findings of this experiment to other aspects of the population, such as females. Moreover, they all volunteered so the findings cannot be applied to the general population.

Question 8

Weakness

Answer 8

People weren’t informed about getting arrested and there was lack of fully informed consent which was practically illegal as well as a personal debriefing. Moreover, participants experienced psychological harm and humiliation. Participants weren’t protected. Zimbardo failed to leave his participants in the same condition as they were in when they began the experiment.

Question 9

Strength

Answer 9

In response to ethical criticisms, Zimbardo argued that the ethical problems were kept to a minimum as he obtained written consent from participants. He made every attempt to ensure they were psychologically and physically fit to partake in the experiment. Participants were also fully debriefed at the end of the study, and Zimbardo maintained contact with them for a year after the study.