L4 - conformity to social roles

Question 1

zimbardo procedure

Answer 1

mock prison set up in basement of university
male students volunteered - psychologically and physically screened
24 of most stable men randomly assigned to be prisoner or guard
unexpectedly arrested at home
prisoners put through delousing procedure, given prison uniforms and an ID number
guards given uniform, clubs, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses
zimbardo played role of prison superintendent

Question 2

zimbardo findings

Answer 2

day 2 - prisoners tried to rebel, ripped off prison numbers and barricaded themselves, guards sprayed with co2, stripped them naked took their beds and forced leaders into solitary confinement
guards became increasingly more cruel and aggressive
prisoners became passive and depressed as guards used verbal abuse, forced to do press ups, pushed them into urinals and left them in dark cupboards for hours
study ended early after 6 days instead of 14 as prisoners showed signs of severe distress

Question 3

strength of zimbardos study

Answer 3

good level of control over variables
when selecting pps, only chose emotionally stable males
each pp randomly assigned so no experimenter bias
increases internal validity

Question 4

3 weaknesses of zimbardos study

Answer 4

• lack of research support, another study conducted by BBC in UK and results were opposite to zimbardo, may have happened due to social identity theory rather that’s situation or disposition
• unrepresentative: pps were all white but one, young, middle class, male students from Stanford uni, so results cannot be generalised to women (gender bias) or other cultures (cultural bias)
• guards may have behaved due to demand characteristics, pps reported that they thought experimenters wanted them to behave aggressively so that’s why they behaved the way they did, so study lacks validity