Lesson 4 - Social Roles

Question 1

Define Social Roles

Answer 1

• Behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a social position or status.
• People conform to the social roles assigned to them.

Question 2

Name the person who created an experiment for social roles

Answer 2

Zimbardo (1973)

Question 3

What was the experiment?

Answer 3

• To investigate whether conformity to social roles would alter a person’s behaviour
• A simulated prison in a basement was created
• 24 mentally and physically stable young men were recruited and randomly assigned prisoner or guard
• Guards had complete control over prisoners who were confined to cells
• Guards were told to maintain order using any means necessary except for physical violence.

Question 4

What were the findings of the experiment?

Answer 4

• Prisoners tried to rebel on second day
• Guards sprayed them with CO2, stripped them naked, took beds away and put ringleaders in solitary confinement
• Guards became increasingly cruel and aggressive, using verbal abuse and solitary confinement
• Prisoners became passive and depressed, showing signs of severe distress
• The study ended after 6 days (meant to last 2 weeks)

Question 5

Evaluation of Zimbardo (1973)

What was wrong with the sample?

Answer 5

• Gender Bias: all 24 students were male
• Cultural Bias: all but one man were white and came from middle class backgrounds.
  The sample is unrepresentative to women and other cultures and cannot be generalised for the rest of the population

Question 6

Evaluation of Zimbardo (1973)

What was wrong with the ethics?

Answer 6

• Prisoners were subjected to psychological harm (extent of harm was not anticipated)
• no Informed consent for extent of experiment

Question 7

Evaluation of Zimbardo (1973)

What was wrong with the methodology?

Answer 7

• Zimbardo took role of prison warden and lost objectivity. The validity of the study can be questioned
• The guards may have behaved accordingly to demand characteristics. Some thought Zimbardo wanted them to act aggressively, and that was why they did so, resulting in an invalid study
• Individual differences caused some guards to become reluctant and they didn’t conform. Other guards became extremely abusive.