SI - conformity to social roles (Z) (AO3) Flashcards
What is a limitation of the study? - Questionable experimental realism
===> Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argue ppts. were play acting based on stereotypes according to demands of experimental situation. Showed study to students that hadn’t heard of the research and majority correctly guessed the aim. One guard admitted his behaviour was based on the film ‘Cool Hand Luke’. However, Z counters this by saying 90% of prisoners’ conversations were about prison life and prisoner #416 stated it was a real prison run by psychologists rather than the government. Internal validity of experiment is inconclusive
What is a limitation of the study? - Ignored the role of dispositional factors + individual differences
===> Fromm (1973) argues exaggerated emphasis on situation dismissed the role of personality. Only 1/3 of guards acted in a brutal way: 1/3 were fair and 1/3 were overly helpful. Individual differences in the extent to which ppts. conformed to their roles weren’t considered in the results
What is a strength of the study? - Good real-life application
===> Helps explain behaviour in prisons and war. Abu Ghraib prison (one of the most notorious in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s government). When the US army took over in 2003, they tortured, physically and sexually abused, and murdered prisoners. Z argued soldiers were victims of a ‘bad barrel’ situation and weren’t ‘bad apples’ themselves. Helped shape USA prison reform in 1970s
What is a limitation of the study? - Results have never been replicated
===> Reicher and Haslam (2006) conducted partial replication: BBC prison study. Prisoners took control and subjected guards to harassment. Social identity theory (SIT) was used to explain this: our self-identity is based on membership within social groups. Guards failed to develop shared social identity but prisoners did, and this meant they refused to accept the limits of their role as prisoners. Challenges Zimbardo’s conclusion of SPE
What is a limitation of the study? - Questionable ethics
===> Some ppts. experienced psychological harm and Zimbardo admitted the study should have stopped earlier. Guards made prisoners skip sleep and clean toilets with their bare hands. One prisoner asked to leave ‘on parole’ and Zimbardo refused. However, he did fully debrief ppts. and claimed there were no long-lasting damages to mental health. Also, the lack of ethics doesn’t diminish the validity of the findings.
