CONFORMITY: zimbardo Flashcards
Informed consent in zimbardos study
Lack of infrormed consent
Particiapnts werent told everything that would happen in the experiment.
E.g being arrested in their own homes
As ps werent aware of everything there is a lack of fully informed consent
How were participants allocated to their social roles in zimbardos study ?
random sampling
How many prisoners were in zimbardos study ?
12
Why is zimbardos study said to be valid ?
Both prisoners and guards still continued their behaviours even when they werent being observed
How many participants in zimbardo study ?
24 male college students
What is a social role?
The parts we play as members of various social groups
What was the procedure of zimbardos study?
Mock prison with 3 main cells a solitary confinement cell and observation room for guards was set up
self selected american male volunteer paid $15 per day. Randomly allocated to prisoner or guard
Prisoners were arrested from their own homes. Taken to prison blindfolded they were stripped sprayed with disinfectant put into smocks and given prison numbers to memorise
no physical agression was permitted
What are the findings of zimbardo?
Both prisoners and the guards had shown identification with their social roles
Guards took complete control and became deindividuated due to the anonymity in their uniform. They woke up the prisoners in the middle of the night made them do pointless tasks and push ups and pointless cruel tasks e.g counting backwards and cleaning toilets with bare hands
prisoners acted like prisoners. some rebelled but most obeyed and became withdrawn and depressed.
5 prisoners were released early as they were showing distress, emotional depression, crying, rage , anxiety
study was supposed to last for 2 weeks but was stopped after 6 days
how many guards in zimbardos study?
12
What is deindividuation?
When someone loses their individual identity and may begin to start to act like the crowd
Right to withdraw in zimbardos study
ps were not allowed to leave the study at first but after time right to withdraw was given when prsioners started to show signs of distress
5 prisoners left after 5 days
The study ended after 6 days it should have lasted for 2 weeks
Protection from harm in zimbardos study
Prisoners were distressed and humiliated they werent allowed to wear underwear
they showed depression anxiety and crying
prisoners were mistreated by guards they were woken up in the middle of the night and made to do push ups and pointless tasks e.g cleaning toilets with bare hands and counting backwards
prisoners werent protected from harm
However in follow up interviews with ps zimbardo found no lasting negative effects
demand characteristics in zimbardo
Demand characteristics may have taken place as ps were aware that theyre playing a role of guards or prisoners so the results of the study may be due to the ps acting and results may not actually be valid. They may have acted differently to what they thought the experimenter wanted them to do.
However when guards were told the cameras were off they still mistreated prisoners
Does zimbardos study have population validity ?
only used male participants so it cant be generalised to females
What are the conclusions of zimbardo?
People will esasily conform to their new social roles especially if the roles are strongly sterotyped.
The roles that people play shape their attitudes and beahviour
