Conformity: Zimbardo's Prison Experiment Flashcards
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment?
To assess the extent to which people conform to social roles.
What gender were all PPTs in the study?
Male
How was the role of prisoner and guard assigned to PPTs?
Randomly
Describe the arrest of PPTs.
PPTs arrested on a random day without knowing that they were going to be arrested.
State 2 ways in which deindividuation of prisoners was achieved in the study.
Stocking were worn to cover hair.
Prisoners assigned numbers to be referred to as, their names were not used.
Why did prisoners wear a stocking cap?
To cover their hair and mimic shaved heads. This removes individuality, leading to deindividuation.
Why did prisoners wear a smock?
What were they not allowed to wear?
To appear as feminine and humiliate them. They were not allowed to wear underwear.
What happened to prisoners upon arrival?
They were stripped naked and deloused. This was done to humiliate them, none of the prisoners had lice.
Why did guards wear mirrored sunglasses?
To hide their eyes which could convey emotion to prisoners.
What colour was the guard’s uniforms?
Khaki
What 2 things did the guards have to control and intimidate prisoners?
A whistle to control them and a club to scare them
What did prisoners agree to in their informed consent?
To expect harassment and violations
How were guards able to behave?
However they wanted to (within limits). Guards were free to make their own rules to control prisoners how they wished.
What 3 things did the prisoners do in their rebellion?
Removed stocking caps
Barricaded themselves in their room
Removed their numbers
What 2 things did guards do to punish prisoners?
Forced them to do extreme numbers of push ups
Shot CO2 at prisoners
How did guards treat prisoners who rebelled the least?
They gave them special privileges (such as allowing them to brush their teeth)
Describe how prisoners went to the toilet.
They were not given privacy, instead they were forced to use a bucket in the corner of their cell.
Why did some prisoners become distrustful of each other?
They believed that those being treated better than others were feeding information to the guards.
What happened to the prisoners when their family visited them?
Prisoners were washed and given clean clothes to wear to give the impression to family that they were being treated well.
When was the experiment terminated and why?
On the 6th day due to severe psychological problems experienced by prisoners.
How long was the study originally meant to last?
14 days
Explain the strength of Zimbardo’s experiment having high internal validity.
Why was validity high?
How were researchers able to rule out the effect of individual differences?
What does this mean for conclusions drawn about conformity to social roles?
This was a result of high control. Participants were randomly assigned to their roles, meaning that researchers could rule out individual personality differences as a result of the behaviours exhibited. This could have resulted in participants starting to feel as if they were in a real prison. This degree of control over variables increases internal validity so we can be more sure about drawing conclusions about social roles and their influence on conformity.
Explain the limitation of the experiment lacking ecological validity.
What were PPTs doing instead of conforming to their social roles?
Why might both prisoners and guards have been doing this?
Researchers argued that the participants were play acting rather than conforming to their roles. Participants performances were based off stereotypes – for example, one of the guards said his personality was based off a film character. The prisoners also rioted, as they thought that’s how real prisoners behaved. This suggests that the experiment tells us little about conformity to social roles in prison.
Explain the limitation of the study exaggerating the power of social roles on the influence of behaviour.
How many guards exhibited violent behaviour? (?/3)
How many guards (?/3) tried to apply rules fairly?
What did other guards try to do to help prisoners?
What does this mean about situational pressures and conformity?
For example, only a third of guards exhibited violent behaviour. The 2nd third tried to apply rules fairly and the final 3rd tried to help prisoners by sympathising and offering cigarettes. Most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a brutal role.
