Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo Flashcards
1
Q
Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo
A
- 1973
2. A study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison
2
Q
Background to Zimbardo’s study
A
- Craig Haney, Curtis Banks, and Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison in order to investigate the conditions under which people become aggressive.
- They observed that prisons in the US were riddled with conflict and wanted to understand how to conflict between guards and prisoners arose
- The Navy funded the research because they also wanted to understand the high levels of aggression in naval prisons
- At the time, the main explanation for conflict in prisons was centred on blaming the prisoners for being evil people
- Prisoners were seen as aggressive types that were naturally disposed to violence
- Others disagreed with this explanation and suggested that the close contact between prisoners and guards created a situation where conflict would arise
3
Q
Aim to the Zimbardo study
A
to investigate prisoner-guard conflict in a simulated prison environment
4
Q
Procedure to Zimbardo study
A
- An advert was placed in a newspaper asking for volunteers to take part in a study of prison life
- From 75 respondents, 22 participants were selected to take part in the experiment. One dropped out leaving 10 prisoners and 11 guards who were randomly assigned to the two roles. All participants were male college students assessed as psychologically healthy. They were paid 15 dollars a day
- A simulated prison was set up in the basement of Stanford university, consisting of three cells with steel bar doors, a yard area, a guardroom, and a closet for solitary confinement. There was also a room with video recording equipment to record transactions between the participants throughout the proposed 2 weeks of experimentation
- The guards were briefed before the experiment and asked to maintain order however were not given exact instructions on how to behave. They were dressed in military-style uniforms and given batons. The prisoners were arrested by real officers from the Palo Alto City Police Department at their homes and charged on suspicion of burglary or armed robbery. They were handcuffed, searched, and taken down to the police station to be processed
- They were then blindfolded and driven to Stanford University where they were stripped and deloused. Each prisoner was given a muslin smock to wear labelled with their prisoner identification number which they were referred to by the whole time
- The prisoners spend a lot fo time in their cells, but were allowed certain privileges such as watching a movie and visits from their family. Three guards worked 8-hour shifts and conducted a prisoner count at the start of every shift, lining up the prisoners who then recited their identification number
5
Q
Results of Zimbardo’s study
A
- After only a few hours, the guards were observed to become increasingly aggressive and controlling towards the prisoners. This increased throughout the study and prisoners were punished with push-ups and solitary confinement and verbally assaulted.
- On the second day, the prisoners rebelled by barricading themselves in their cells. This was soon quashed by the guards who used a fire extinguisher to break into the cells and then placed the ringleaders into solitary confinement
- Over the course fo the next few days, the guards increasingly intimidated the prisoners and there was an escalation in verbal aggression and punishment
- Individual differences were apparent as some prisoners were passive while others were actively rebellious. There were also differences in the guards: some instigated aggression which others were more reluctant to engage in conflict
- The study was prematurely stopped after just 6 days because the behaviour of the prisoners and the guards was getting out of control. Many of the prisoners were displaying signs of anxiety and depression, desperate to leave the study
6
Q
Conclusion to the Zimbardo study
A
- It was clear that both the prisoners and the guards conformed to the role that they had been assigned
- The prisoners because submissive and passive, the guards aggressive and hostile
- The uniforms deindividuated them, facilitating this change in behaviour, they lost their personal identity and adopted the identities they were given
- The prisoners in particular were stripped of their personal identity. They were never referred to by name, only by identification number
- They were humiliated and broken down through menial tasks and punishments. Both prisoners and guards were immersed in the simulated prison environment.
7
Q
Strengths to Zimbardo’s study
A
- There is evidence to indicate that the prisoners and guards were not acting. The recording made fo their transactions showed that most of the time prisoners talked about prison life rather than their personal lives. This shows that they were becoming immersed in the situation rather than merely acting
- Each participant was fully debriefed and given psychological evaluations after the study to ensure their well-being
8
Q
Weaknesses to Zimbardo’s study
A
- Distress was caused to the ‘prisoners’. They were subjected to physical and psychological harm at the hands of the ‘guards’. One participant was removed from the prison after just 35 hours because they were so emotionally distressed. The study was stopped after 6 days because the behaviour of the participants was clearly getting out of hand.
- The simulated prison study was designed to emulate the conditions of a real prison, but for ethical reasons rules were in place to prevent physical abuse and other common experiences that occur in real prisons. A clear difference is that the prisoners and guards knew that they were only going to be imprisoned for a maximum of 2 weeks so the guards and prisoners could have been acting in a way they thought was expected of them rather than demonstrating real behaviour in the situation which lowers ecological validity
- The study was only conducted on male college students so this limits the generalisability of the findings
