Exam 2: Social Roles

Question 1

Norms & Roles

Answer 1

• Norms: rule or expectation for behavior

- Roles: set of norms that define how people behave in a given social position

Question 2

Social Roles Influence Behaviors & Others’ Perceptions of Us

Answer 2

• Milgram Obedience study
• Rosenhan Hospital study
• Zimbardo Prison study

Question 3

Milgram Obedience Study (Social Roles Influence…)

Answer 3

• Teacher & student roles
• Shocker & shockee
• Different locations
• Number of other subjects following along
• In same room as student

Question 4

Rosenhan Hospital Study (Social Roles Influence…)

Answer 4

• Mental patient role
• 8 pseudopatients sent to 12 different hospitals
• Falsified name, employment, purpose
• Symptoms: empty, hollow, thud
• Upon admission, ceased all complaints & tried to convince staff of sanity

Results

• All admitted (1 manic depression & 7 schizophrenia)
• Length of admission 7-52 days
• Behavior interpreted as mental illness
• No staff detected their sanity
• Real patients detected sanity
• others’ roles affect how we treat others

Follow Up Experiment

• Told hospital that 1 or more pseudopatients would be admitted in next 3 months
• None actually admitted

Results

• Found people who are pseudopatients when they really aren’t
• 41/193 patients alleged as sane by at least 1 staff

Question 5

Zimbardo Prison Study (Social Roles Influence…)

Answer 5

• Main purpose of study: fundamental attribution error (situations influence behavior, not personality)
• Prisoner & guard roles
• Treated prisoners as one group (deindividuation)
  a. wear same uniform
  b. only identify by numbers
  c. made it difficult for group to form
• Pit prisoner against each other
• Nice to prisoners for visiting hours because worried how society will view their actions toward prisoners
• Behaviors stem from conditions we’re in (not personality)
• Mentally healthy people play these roles
• Yes, it’s an experiment (IV: role & DV: behaviors)
• No, it’s not an experiment (no control group)
• Ethics: no consent forms, no informed consent, no IRB, person in charge of experiment is part of the study (biases), subjects couldn’t leave, created ways to keep subjects in, etc.
• Justification of effort (dissonance): more likely to say yes 10 yrs later about liking experiment because they suffered & were embarrassed and need to justify the experiment/their actions