Social Influence - 02 Conformity to social roles Zimbardo Flashcards
What is a social role?
The behaviours that society expects from you
What is conformity to social roles an example of and why?
identification as our behaviour will change again when we leave that social role
What was Zimbardo interested in?
The extent to which we conform to the expectations that people have of us in our social roles
If ordinary people were placed in a prison environment and given a role as a prisoner or guard, how would they behave in their new role
Who did Zimbardo select out of the students who applied to be part of the experiment?
He selected those that were emotionally stable
How were the students allocated their roles
Random allocation
What happened to those who were assigned prisoner?
-They were arrested at their homes by the police and driven to “prison”
-There they were blindfolded, strip-searched, deloused and issued with a uniform and ID number
What were the guards told about their control ?
They had complete control over the prisoners and the prisoner’s daily routines were heavily regulated by them
How long was the experiment set to last for?
2 weeks
How long did the experiment actually last for and why?
6 days due to the complete chaos and misuse of the guard’s power which lead the the p’s being harmed
What were the findings (guards)?
-highlighted the differences in social roles by creating opportunities to enforce the rules & punish the prisoners
-started to identify more & more with their role and became more brutal and aggressive
-some started to enjoy the power they had over the prisoners
What were the findings (prisoners)?
-became depressed & anxious
-some asked to leave experiment
-one went on hunger strike
Weakness of Zimbardo’s prison study (lack of realism + counterargument)
-Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argued that p’s were play acting
-Acting based off of stereotypes of how guards and prisoners are supposed to behave
-One guard said he was inspired by character from film which showed controlling and aggressive characteristics
-This resulted in demand characteristics = reduction in internal validity
COUNTERARGUMENT
-evidence that the situation was very real to the p’s
-90% of prisoner conversations were about prison life
-so could have high internal validity as it felt real to the prisoners
Weakness of Zimbardo’s prison study (ethical guidelines)
-5 prisoners left experiment because of adverse reactions to the physically and mental torment
-some guards felt guilty and anxiety
-although he got the p’s to sign an informed consent contract and he debriefed them afterwards he acknowledged that he should have stopped the study earlier
-his dual role as research and prisoner superintendent meant that his judgement was clouded and he could not protect from harm
Weakness of Zimbardo’s prison study (contradicting findings)
-replication done by Reicher and Haslam (2006)
-p’s did not conform guards refused to impose their authority, the prisoners identified as a group to challenge the guards authority which caused a collapse in the prison system
-clearly contradicts the findings and suggests that conformity to social roles may not be automatic
Weakness of Zimbardo’s prison study (individual differences)
-the behaviour of the guards varied dramatically, from extremely sadistic behaviour to a few good guards who helped the prisoners
-suggests that situational factors are not the only cause of conformity to social roles and that dispositional factors also play a role
