Social Influence - Conforming to social roles: Zimbardo's research Flashcards
Explain the aim of Zimbardo’s study - 1973
Aim - To investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guards and prisoners and Zimbardo was interested to find out if the brutality reported amongst guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards.
Explain the procedure of Zimbardo’s study
- It was a volunteer sample
- Study was advertised in newspaper and stated that volunteers would be paid $15 a day for 2 weeks
- Interview and personality tests were done to eliminate candidates with psychological problems
- 12 prisoners and 12 guards
- Prisoners and guards were randomly allocated through a coin toss
- Prisoners were arrested from their home - they were cuffed and blindfolded, they were given numbers and were only reffered to as numbers and they were stripped bare and give smocks
- No violence was permitted
- There was 3 guards on each shift
- Zimbardo played a dual role of prison superintendent and the psychologist leading the research
What were the findings of the experiment?
- The guards conformed first and very quickly the guards started to be violent
- Prisoners rebelled after 2 days and guards used extinguishers to stop the rebellion
- Some prisoners became depressed and anxious and one prisoner had to be sent home after the first day
- By day 6, prisoners were submissive to guards
- Study was meant to last 2 weeks but had to be cancelled after 6 days
Explain the conclusions of Zimbardo’s study
Zimbardo concluded that the conforming behaviour by the Participants can be explained in 2 factors:
1. Stereotypical roles: People will behave how they think they should based on their social role, especially if roles are strongly stereotyped which explains the guard’s behaviour
2. Deindividualisation: Stripping people of their identity makes them more likely to conform to their social role
What was the name of Zimbardo’s study?
The Stanford Prison Experiment - 1973
