SI- Conformity to Social Roles

Question 1

What are social roles?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Describe the procedure of Zimbardo’s study.

Answer 2

• Zimbardo (1973) wanted to investigate whether conformity to
  social roles would alter a person’s behaviour.
• A simulated prison was created in
  the basement of the Stanford University Psychology department.
• 24 emotionally and psychologically stable young men were recruited and randomly
  assigned to the role of prisoner or guard.
• The guards had complete control over
  the prisoners who were confined to their cells around the clock except for
  meals, toilet privileges, head counts and work.
• The guards were told to maintain
  order using any means necessary, except for physical violence.

Question 3

Describe the findings of Zimbardo’s study.

Answer 3

• On the second day the prisoners tried to rebel, they ripped off their prison numbers and barricaded themselves in their cell.
• The guards sprayed
  them with carbon dioxide, stripped them naked, took their beds away and
  forced the ringleaders into solitary confinement. - Over the next few days the guards became increasingly cruel and aggressive, creating a brutal atmosphere.
• Prisoners became passive and depressed as the guards used verbal abuse,
  forced them to do repeated press ups, pushed them into urinals and left them in a pitch black cupboard for hours.
• The guards became so aggressive that the study had to be ended after only six days (it was meant to last two weeks),
  because of concerns about the psychological health of the prisoners, who were showing signs of severe distress.

Question 4

Evaluate Zimbardo’s study. (ADVANTAGES)

Answer 4

1) GOOD LEVEL OF CONTROL OVER VARIABLES
- One of the main strengths of the SPE study is that Zimbardo and his collegues had some level of control over the variables.
- For example, when selecting male pps, Zimbardo and his team chose the most emotionally stable males.
- Furthermore, each pp was randomly assigned to either prisoner or guard meaning that there was no experimenter bias.
- It also meant that if the guards and prisoners behaved differently but were in those roles through chance, then their behaviour had to be due to the pressures of the situation rather than their own individual personalities.
- The high control over variables increases the internal validity.

Question 5

Evaluate Zimbardo’s study. (DISADVANTAGES)

Answer 5

1) The study was highly unethical as prisoners were subjected to psychological
harm. Five prisoners had to be released early because of their extreme reactions, such as crying, rage and acute anxiety.
- Also, Zimbardo took on the role of prison warden, became very involved in the experiment and lost his objectivity.
- He had to be told by a colleague to end the experiment because of concerns over the distress of the prisoners. This means the validity of the findings can be questioned.

2) The sample was unrepresentative as all the participants were white (with one exception), young, middle class, male students from Stanford University.
- Therefore, the results cannot be generalised to women (gender bias) or other cultures (cultural bias

3) Some of the guards did not conform to the role given to them and were very
reluctant to become involved in cruelty towards the prisoners, whereas other guards were very abusive.
- This seems to suggest that individual differences are
important in determining the extent to which participants will conform to social
role.