socia influence: Zimbardo Flashcards
What is one strength of the SPE according to Zimbardo and his colleagues?
Control over key variables.
What type of individuals were chosen as participants in the SPE?
Emotionally-stable individuals.
How were participants assigned in the SPE?
Randomly assigned to the roles of guard and prisoner.
What did the random assignment of roles help to rule out?
Individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings.
If guards and prisoners behaved very differently, what does it imply according to the SPE?
Their behaviour must have been due to the role itself.
What does the degree of control over variables in the SPE increase?
Internal validity of the study.
What can we be more confident about due to the internal validity increased by control over variables?
Drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on conformity.
What is one limitation of the SPE?
It did not have the realism of a true prison.
This lack of realism affects the validity of the findings.
Who argued that participants in the SPE were merely play-acting?
Ali Banuazizi and Siamak Movahedi.
They suggested that participants conformed to stereotypes rather than genuine roles.
What influenced the guards’ performances in the SPE?
Stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave.
For example, one guard based his role on a character from the film Cool Hand Luke.
Why did the prisoners riot in the SPE?
They thought that was what real prisoners did.
This indicates a lack of genuine understanding of prison dynamics.
What does the SPE suggest about conformity to social roles in actual prisons?
The findings tell us little about conformity in actual prisons.
The artificial setting may not reflect real-life behaviors.
What did Mark McDermott argue about the participants’ behavior in the SPE?
The participants behaved as if the prison was real to them
What percentage of the prisoners’ conversations were about prison life?
90%
What did the prisoners discuss among themselves regarding their sentences?
They discussed how it was impossible to leave the SPE before their ‘sentences’ were over
How did ‘Prisoner 416’ perceive the prison in the SPE?
He believed the prison was a real one, but run by psychologists rather than the government
What does the behavior of participants in the SPE suggest about the study?
The SPE did replicate the social roles of prisoners and guards in a real prison
What degree of validity does the SPE have due to the participants’ behavior?
A high degree of internal validity
What is one limitation of Zimbardo’s findings regarding social roles?
Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour
Fromm (1973) critiques Zimbardo’s conclusions about the extent of role influence.
What proportion of guards in the SPE behaved brutally?
Only one-third of the guards behaved in a brutal manner
This indicates variability in guard behavior during the experiment.
What did another third of the guards attempt to do?
They tried to apply the rules fairly
This shows that not all guards conformed to a brutal role.
What actions did the remaining guards take towards the prisoners?
They actively tried to help and support the prisoners by:
* sympathising
* offering cigarettes
* reinstating privileges
This illustrates a range of responses from guards, contrary to the expected brutal behavior.
What does the behavior of most guards suggest about Zimbardo’s conclusions?
Most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a brutal role
This suggests an underestimation of dispositional factors, such as personality.
Fill in the blank: Zimbardo’s view that SPE participants were conforming to social roles may have _______ the influence of dispositional factors.
[minimised]
Dispositional factors refer to individual personality traits that affect behavior.
