Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo's research

Question 1

Which study of conformity was conducted by Philip Zimbardo?

Answer 1

Zimbardo conducted ‘the Stanford prison experiment’ (SPE).

Question 2

What was Zimbardo’s aim when investigating conformity to social roles?

Answer 2

Following reports of brutality by guards in prisons across America in the late 1960s, Zimbardo and his colleagues wanted to answer the following question: ‘do prison guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities, or is it the situation that creates such behaviour’?

Question 3

Which hypothesis was tested by Zimbardo?

Answer 3

Zimbardo tested the dispositional hypothesis

Question 4

Which type of conformity was investigated by Zimbardo and his colleagues?

Answer 4

Zimbardo and his colleagues investigated a different type of conformity, known as a social role.

Question 5

What are social roles?

Answer 5

Social roles refer to the parts people play as members of various social groups and the expectations that come with these.

Question 6

What type of experiment was conducted by Zimbardo?

Answer 6

Laboratory experiment

Question 7

Where did Zimbardo conduct his research?

Answer 7

Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University.

Question 8

How did Zimbardo advertise his study?

Answer 8

The study was advertised in a newspaper article which read: ‘male college students needed for psychological study into prison life’.

Question 9

How much money where the participants offered?

Answer 9

Participants were offered $15 a day for 1-2 weeks

Question 10

How many people responded to the original article?

Answer 10

75 people responded the to article

Question 11

Out of the 75 people who responded to the article, how many were chosen to participate in the study?

Answer 11

24 individuals were selected to participate. Each of these individuals were: white, healthy, middle-class and male.

Question 12

Zimbardo allocated the participants to the role of either a prisoner or a guard. How did he allocate these roles?

Answer 12

Zimbardo allocated the roles randomly by flipping a coin. The social roles of the prisoners and guards were strictly divided. Social roles acted as the independent variable within Zimbardo’s study.

Question 13

How was the realism of Zimbardo’s study heightened?

Answer 13

To heighten the realism of the study, the ‘prisoners’ were arrested in their homes by the local police and were then delivered to the ‘prison’. They were then blindfolded, strip-searched and issued a uniform and number.

Question 14

Briefly outline the role of the ‘prisoners’ within Zimbardo’s experiment.

Answer 14

The prisoners’ daily routines were heavily regulated. There were 16 rules they had to follow, which were enforced by the guards who worked in shifts, three at a time. The prisoners’ names were never used, only their numbers.

Question 15

Briefly outline the role of the ‘guards’ within Zimbardo’s experiment.

Answer 15

The guards, to underline their role, had their own uniform, complete with a wooden club, handcuffs, keys and mirror shades. They were told they had complete power over the prisoners, for instance even deciding when they could go to the toilet.

Question 16

Did Zimbardo gain consent from his participants?

Answer 16

Participants were issued with a contact which guaranteed basic life needs. The contract clearly stated that if they were to be assigned the role of the prisoner, they would have to have some of their basic human rights suspended.

Question 17

What was the structure of the prison environment?

Answer 17

-There were three cells (3x9) with three prisoners to each
of the cells. All prisoners were equipped with a
mattress, a sheet and a pillow.

-The ‘hole’ was a small, unlit room which provided
solitary confinement for the prisoners.

-The yard was a small and enclosed room with no locks
or windows.

Question 18

Zimbardo’s study was stopped after six days instead of the intended 14. Explain why.

Answer 18

The behaviour of the ‘guards’ became a threat to the ‘prisoners’ psychological and physical health. This caused the study to end early.

Question 19

What had happened within two days of the experiment?

Answer 19

Within two days, the prisoners rebelled against their harsh treatment by the guards. They ripped their uniforms, and shouted and swore at the guards, who retaliated with fire extinguishers. The guards employed ‘divide-and-rule’ tactics by playing the prisoners off against each other. They harassed the prisoners constantly, to remind them that they were being monitored at all times. For example, they conducted frequent headcount, sometimes in the middle of the night, when the prisoners would stand in line and call out their numbers. After the rebellion was put down, prisoners became subdued, depressed and anxious.

Question 20

How many prisoners were released on the first day of the experiment?

Answer 20

One prisoner was released on the first day because he showed symptoms of psychological disturbance.

Question 21

How many prisoners were released on the fourth day of the experiment?

Answer 21

Two prisoners were released on the fourth day because they were displaying signs of psychological disturbance.

Question 22

One prisoner responded to the harsh treatment by going on a hunger strike. How did the guards respond to this behaviour?

Answer 22

The guards attempted to force-feed him and then punished him by putting him in the ‘hole’. This caused him to he shunned by the other prisoners.

Question 23

What did Zimbardo and his colleagues conclude from the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 23

-The behaviour of the participants was influenced by the
role they had been assigned and the extent to which
they believed in these assigned positions.

-The prison environment was an important factor in
creating the guard’s brutal behaviour. This was evidence
in the fact that none of the participants playing the role
of the guard had displayed sadistic tendencies prior to
the study.

-People readily conformed to the roles they were
assigned, especially if these roles were stereotyped.

Question 24

Did Zimbardo reject or accept the dispositional hypothesis?

Answer 24

Zimbardo rejected the dispositional hypothesis because he concluded that it was the prison environment which was responsible for the guards’ sadistic tendencies.

Question 25

What is pathological prisoner syndrome?

Answer 25

Pathological prisoner syndrome refers to the social deterioration that was experienced by the prisoners. For example, they experienced: the loss of personal identity, arbitrary control exercised by the guards, dependency and emasculation.

Question 26

Evaluation point: ‘One limitation of Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment is its association with numerous ethical issues’. Write a paragraph outlining this AO3 point.

Answer 26

One limitation of Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment is its association with numerous ethical issues. This was particularly evident when Zimbardo adopted a ‘dual role’ which allowed him to act as both the researcher and the superintendent. When participants asked to end their involvement in the research process, Zimbardo was able to respond in the role of the superintendent, thus denying his participants access to the right of withdrawal. This therefore acts as a weakness of his study because participants were put at significant psychological risk, which forces one to question whether the research was justifiable. In this light, Zimbardo’s inquiry can be criticised for having negative ethical implications as the family members of the participants would have had to care for their loved ones on their arrival home and may have had to even pay money to gain access to treatment programmes, such as therapy, in order to treat their deteriorating mental health.

Question 27

Evaluation point: ‘One weakness of Zimbardo’s investigation into social roles is its failure to identify the significance of both situational and dispositional factors’. Write a paragraph outlining this AO3 point.

Answer 27

One weakness of Zimbardo’s investigation into social roles is its failure to identify the significance of both situational and dispositional factors. Specifically, Fromm accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the impact of the situation over people’s behaviour and minimising the role of personality factors. In reality, only one third of the prisoners acted in a brutal way, which is a much lower statistic than what Zimbardo had originally alluded to within his findings. This therefore acts as a limitation of the Stanford prison experiment because it suggests that Zimbardo’s findings are invalid, resulting in his conclusions having little impact within contemporary psychology. Because personality factors have been largely ignored by Zimbardo, his study can further be criticised for being environmentally reductionist. To achieve a more holistic theory, perhaps biological factors should have been considered (i.e. were any of the male participants biologically predisposed to develop sadistic tendencies). This would achieve an interactionist approach when investigating conformity.

Question 28

Evaluation point: ‘One strength of Zimbardo’s experiment derives from the fact that participants believed the prison to be legitimate’. Write a paragraph outlining this AO3 point.

Answer 28

One strength of Zimbardo’s experiment derives from the fact that participants believed the prison to be legitimate. This is supported by statistical evidence which revealed that 90% of prison conversations were about prison life. Prisoner 416 later suggested that the prison was in fact real, it was just run by a group of psychologists as opposed to the government. This therefore acts as a strength of the Stanford prison experiment because the evidence alludes to the idea that participants behaved authentically throughout the investigation, thus making it easy to produce insightful conclusions regarding conformity to social roles. This can however be criticised because in order for the prison environment to appear real, it is likely that the conditions were extremely poor. This therefore implies that ethical issues were high. Additionally, Zimbardo came under criticism from Banuazzi and Mohavedi who argued that participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role. According to these two psychologists, their performances were based on stereotypes of prisoners and guards (e.g. one prisoner claimed his actions were based on a brutal character from Cool Hand Luke). This suggests that participants acted on demand characteristics, causing one to question the claim that 90% of prison conversations were about prison life.