Conformity to Social Roles: Zimbardo's Research Flashcards
Define social roles:
The part people plays as members of a social group
What occurs when adopting a social role?
Behaviour change to fit the expectations to fit role
When was the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted?
1973
Why did the study happen?
US Navy wanted to investigate the causes of conflict between guards and prisoners in naval prisons
What did Zimbardo want to prove?
That it is situational variables which makes people act the way they do than their disposition
Aims of Zimbardo’s research:
- How the taking of social roles would lead to conformity to roles
- test the disposition hypothesis
Method of Stanford Prison experiment:
- Basement of Stanford University
- Participants randomly allocated to ‘prisoner’ or ‘guard’
- Guards told not to use physical punishment
Sample of Stanford Prison experiment:
- 24 men
- middle class
- white
- passed psychological testing
- ‘Prisoners’ collected from home and were fingerprinted, blindfolded, searched and given a uniform (role of identification)
What did the participants have to sign?
- Contract guaranteeing basic living need
- Prisoners may have some basic civil rights suspended
Results of Stanford Prison experiment:
- Guards humiliates and punished prisoners
- Prisoners began to show signs of mental and emotional distress
- Riots on the second day
- Prisoners later on became passive and helpless
- Guards became aggressive in authoritarian way
- 5 Prisoners had been released earlier
- The experiment was stopped 6 days instead of the planned 14 days
Conclusion of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment:
- Rejects the dispositional hypothesis
- Readily conformed to social roles they were expected to play
- Social roles shaped their attitudes and behaviour
What happened according to Zimbardo?
Deindividuation - prisoners unable to focus on themselves by the humiliation of arrest and acting of the guards
Evaluation of Zimardo’s method:
- Choice of participants (emotionally stable. Randomly allocated to conditions to avoid influence of personality)
- Good internal validity (cause and effect of the roles)
What did Banuazizi and Mahavedi (1975) suggest?
Participants were play-acting rather than genuinely conforming
How did Zimbardo over-exaggerate the power of the situation?
Reports seem to show an overall aggressive manner for guards but it was only one third
Ethical Issues with Zimbardo’s Research:
- Considered ethical as followed guidelines
- Deception - Zimbardo was acting as superintendent so able to maintain ethical responsibility
- Exposed to risk of psychological harm
Real life application of Zimardo’s Prison Experiment:
-Abu Ghraib (2003) had similar situation
