Outline + Evaluate Zimbardo's Research into Conformity

Question 1

Aims

Answer 1

To see how quickly we take on social roles through the guise of a prison environment –> nature vs nuture

Are people sadistic by nature or brutal conditions?

Question 2

Procedures

Answer 2

• 24 male Stanford student volunteers were randomly allocated roles of prisoner or guards in a mock prison in Stanford basement
• Prisoners : arrested at home unexpected, dressed in smock , given ID numbers and only referred to that way
• Guards : were told to do whatever to make prisoners complicant, dressed in unform
• Zimbardo was prison warden

Question 3

Findings - Related to Social Roles

Answer 3

• Guards become very aggressive so much so the experiment ended early - 6 days instead of 2 weeks
• Prisoners experienced deindivuation - lost identity due to being immersed in their social role to the point of breakdown
• Experienced learned helplessness - became submissive when their efforts like their revolt served no use

Question 4

Conclusions

Answer 4

Simulation revealed the power of the situation influenced people’s behaviour
Guards, prisoners and researchers conformed to their roles quickly - even volunteers like prison chaplain believed they were in real prison

As they were ‘normal’ before study, behaviour must be situational

Question 5

Zimbardo’s view - STRENGTH

Answer 5

-Had control over the variables he was testing by the selectons of pps were tested to be emotionally stable and thus rules out indivdual differences for their behaviour

Concludes that it must have been caused by circumstances alone and increases internal validity

Question 6

Lacked realism - LIMITATION

Answer 6

• Banuzizi and Mohavedi - not realistic due to element of acting from the participants being based on streotypes of their roles - demand characteristics

e.g. a guard based his role on a character in a film ‘Cool Hand Luke’
prisoners rioted due to beliefs on what real prisoners do

Suggests the findings of SPE tells us little about conformity in actual prisons

Question 7

Zimbardo’s defense of realism - STRENGTH

Answer 7

• McDermott (2019) Pps became immersed in their roles where 90% of prisoners conversations were about prison life and expressing they can’t leave the SPE until their sentence was over

Prisoner 416 later explained how he believed the prison was a real on but run by psychologists instead of the government

Suggests the SPE replicated the social roles of prisoners + guards and gives study a lot of internal validity

Question 8

Exaggeration of power of roles - LIMITATION

Answer 8

• Fromm (1973) -
• Only 1/3 of guards acted in a brutal manner, another third tried to apply rules fairly the rest tried to be helpful and supportive
• According to Zimbardo (2007), some sympathised, offered cigarettes and reinstated privileges + most resist situational pressures to conform to brutal roles

Suggests Zimbardo overstated his view that pps conformed to social roles + minimised the influence of personality

Question 9

Alternative Explanation - LIMITATION

Answer 9

Instead of Zimbardo’s view of behaviour that conforming to social role comes naturally e.g pps will inevitably be brutal if that’s expected

–> Reicher and Haslam (2006) - doesn’t account for the behaviour of non-brutal guards

Used social identity theory (SIT) instead to argue that the guards had to actively identify with their social roles to act as they did

Question 10

ETHICS

Answer 10

• • Lack of informed consent from prisoners being arrested from home
• • Psychologically impacted pps - even though it was not long term through self report techniques, was still apparent e.g. #416