Lesson 5: Conformity to Social Roles; Zimbardo

Question 1

What is conformity to social roles?

Answer 1

When an individual adopts a particular behaviour and belief, while in a particular social situation

Question 2

Zimbardo AO1

Answer 2

• proposed the SPE (1974) to see whether people would conform to new social roles
• he was interested in finding whether brutality reported among guards in prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards or the prison environment

Question 3

What was the procedure of the SPE?

Answer 3

• basement was converted into mock prison
• 24 male college students who were checked to ensure there were no psychological problems
• randomly assigned guard or prison (11 guards and 10 prisoners)
• paid $15 a day
• prisoners were arrested in their own home and were booked like normal prisoners
• prisoners were given an ID, a smock and a nylon cap
• guards had khaki uniform with shades to prevent eye contact
• Zimbardo acted as superintendent

Question 4

What were the results of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 4

• pps conformed to roles very quickly
• prisoners were dehumanised, interrupted in sleep and were made to do meaningless tasks
• experiment ended early since prisoners had severe reactions like nervous rashes and breakdowns
• five prisoners were released early

Question 5

Strengths of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 5

• good level of control over variables (no experimenter bias)
• experiment has good application to Abu Ghraib (Abu ghraib was a prison were guards tortured and abused prisoners)

Question 6

Weaknesses of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 6

• lack of research support (this experiment was replicated by the BBC and findings were very different)
• ethical issues: Zimbardo had dual roles (as a superintendent and a psychologist). When one prisoners wanted to leave Zimbardo responded as a superintendent rather than a psychologist and did not take responsibility for his pps. However, he argued that if they insisted he would’ve allowed it and that he provided debriefing sessions to ensure no psychological harm.
• There was also deception as the prisoners would not be told that they would be arrested in their own homes. This may have psychologically harmed the pps. However, he argued this made it more realistic.

Question 7

How does Zimbardo argue against the criticism of lack of ethics in his experiment?

Answer 7

• the deception was limited to the beginning of the experiment
• without deceiving them they would have shown demand characteristics
• Zimbardo abandoned the experiment when realising the prisoners were having severe reactions
• there were extensive group and individual debriefing sessions
• Zimbardo argues the benefits gained from the experiment was worth the distress caused by the study.