Section 1 : Social Influence - Conformity To Social Roles Flashcards
What are social roles
Behaviours that society expect from you.
What is an example of social roles
Mother has to fulfil her role as mother by loving and caring for her child
Who set up a study for conformity to social roles
Zimbardo (1973)
What did Zimbardo set up
A mock prison - to see if people would conform to the assigned roles as prisoner or guard
Who were selected for this study
Male students
How were students who were selected for this study assigned roles
They were randomly assigned a role of prisoner or guard
What was being observed during this study
The behaviour of the prisoners and guards
What was the method used for this study
-Prisoners were arrested
-They were taken to prison given uniform and numbers
-Guards also wore uniforms and mirrored sunglasses
What was the result of this study
-Guards tried to assert authority over prisoners
-Prisoners stuck together and then became more passive and obedient, while guards invented nastier punishments
-Experiment was abandoned early because some prisoners were very distressed
What can we conclude about Zimbardo’s Prison Study
-Guards and Prisoners quickly adopted their roles.
-Zimbardo claims that our social role can influence our behaviour - seemingly well balanced men became unpleasant and aggressive in the role of the guards
Was this a controlled observation
Yes, meaning there was good control of variables.
Why can’t the study be generalised
Because it was an artificial environment meaning it cannot be generalised to real life situations
Were there ethical problems with Zimbardo 1973
Yes, prisoners found the experience very distressing
Was there observer bias
Yes. Zimbardo ran the prison himself and later admitted that he became too personally involved in the situation. The conclusion Zimbardo reached doesn’t expIain why some of the participants acted according to their roles
Has anyone replicated Zimbardo’s prison study
No. This is down to design problems
