CONFORMITY: ZIMBARDOS PRISON STUDY Flashcards
what are social roles?
the parts people play as members of various social groups. these are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role.
what was the aim of the stanford prison experiment?
in the 1960s there was a lot of guard brutality reported in american prisons, Zimbardo wanted to know if it was sadistic personalities or the situation.
what was the procedure of the stanford prison experiment?
zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of stanford university. he advertised for students and selected emotionally stable ones (they went through rigorous psychological evaluation). the participants were randomly assigned prisoner or guard. the prisoners were arrested from their homes by the police, blindfolded, strip-searched, deloused and given a number and uniform. the social roles were made clear, prisoners names were not to be used, only numbers. the guards were given their own uniforms, handcuffs, keys and sunglasses and were told they had full power over the prisoners.
what were the findings of the stanford prison experiment?
the guards took to their roles so much that their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners psychological and physical health. within 2 days the prisoners had rebelled against the guards such as ripping their uniform, shouting and swearing. the guards harassed prisoners and punished them regularly. after rebelling, the prisoners were subdued, depressed and anxious. one of the prisoners was released on day 1 due to psychological disturbance. another prisoner went on hunger strike. the guards became very brutal and aggressive and the study had to stop after 6 days instead of 14.
what were the conclusions of the stanford prison experiment?
it shows that the power of situation influences peoples behaviour and that all the guards, prisoners and researchers all conformed to their roles in the prison.
AO3: how is ‘good levels of control’ a strength to zimbardos prison experiment?
one strength to Zimbardos prison experiment as a way of explaining conformity to social roles is that it has good levels of control. this is because Zimbardo only picked participants who were emotionally stable and had gone through the rigorous psychological assessments. he also used standardised procedures which meant that all of the prisoners were treated the same and all extraneous variables were carefully controlled. therefore, this increases the reliability as it can be retested, however, it may lack ecological validity as all variables are controlled so we have to take caution when generalising it to the outside.
AO3: how is ‘real life application’ a strength to zimbardos prison experiment?
one strength to zimbardos prison experiment to explaining conformity to social roles is that it has real life application. for example, rules have now been put in place within prisons to prevent the aggressive behaviour of the guards. this means that superintendents are now able to be provided with the knowledge needed to control the behaviours of their guards so they don’t become abusive to the inmates. therefore, by understand how people learn and conform to social roles, it can help us to reduce the aggression levels towards inmates in prisons throughout the world.
AO3: how is ‘ethical issues’ a limitation to zimbardos research?
one limitation to zimbardos prison experiment to explaining conformity to social roles is that it has ethical issues. this is because participants were not fully informed about what they were participating in. for example, the participants who were prisoners were not informed that they would be getting arrested from their own home. the participants were also not protected from harm, this is because they suffered psychological harm even after being declared psychologically healthy, and 1 participant had to be removed on day 1 due to extreme psychological distress. therefore, by failing to stop the study, the participants experienced unnecessary distress, however, this research has led to the development of relevant ethical guidelines current researchers have to use in order to prevent further distress to the participants.
AO3: how is ‘lacking realism’ a limitation to zimbardos prison study?
one limitation to zimbardos prison experiment to explaining conformity to social roles is that it lacks realism. for example, the participants knew it was a study so the participants may have portrayed demand characteristics. researchers Banuazizi and Mohavedi believed that participants were play acting based on stereotypes they had seen in films about jails. however, McDermott said participants behaved 90% of the time as if the prison was real. in their conversations with ‘p416’ he said that he believed the prison was real but it was just run by psychologists. therefore, this supports the idea that the participants knew the prison wasn’t real and just went along with what they had seen in films, suggesting their behaviour wasn’t real but instead them just playing a role.
