Social influence - conformity to social roles Flashcards
Social roles
The ‘parts’ people play as members of various social groups. For example being a teacher/student/passenger
These are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role such as caring or being
Experiment in investigating the conformity to social roles
The Stanford Prison Experiment by Zimbardo
Aim of the Stanford Prison Experiment
To investigate the extent to which people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing simulation of prison life
Procedure of the Stanford Prison Experiment
- Set up a mock prison to investigate the effect of social roles on conformity
- 21 male student volunteers were involved in the study that were ‘emotionally stable’
- They were randomly allocated to the role of guard or prisoner
- The social role were encouraged by two routes:
UNIFORM - prisoners were strip searched, given uniform and a number (encouraged de-individuation) guards enforced rules and had own uniform/handcuffs
INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT BEHAVIOUR - prisoners were told they could not leave but would have to ask for parole, guards had complete power over prisoners
Findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment
- Within a day the prisoners rebelled and ripped off the numbers. The guards responded by locking them in their cells and confiscating blankets
- The guards’ behaviour became a threat to the prisoners’ psychological and physical health
- Dehumanisation was increasingly apparent with the guards becoming ever more aggressive, while the prisoners became submissive and unquestioning to the guard’s behaviour
- Prisoners were humiliated, deprived of sleep and made to clean toilets with their bare hands in the night
- De-individuation (a state in which individuals have a lower self-awareness and a weaker sense of personal responsibilities for their actions. This may result from the relative anonymity of being part of a crowd) was noticeable by the prisoners referring to each other and themselves by their prison numbers instead of their names
- The prisoners became rapidly depressed. After 36 hours, 1 prisoner was released because he showed symptoms of psychological disturbances. 3 more prisoners developed similar symptoms and were released on consecutive days. 1 prisoner went on a hunger strike
- The study ended after 6 days
Conclusions related to social roles
Social roles are powerful influences on behaviour - most conformed strongly to their role
Guards became brutal, prisoners became submissive
Other volunteers easily conformed to their roles in the prison e.g chaplain
One strength of the Stanford Prison Experiment
Highly controlled
EVALUATION: The Stanford Prison Experiment was highly controlled
P - A strength of Zimbardo’s study is that there was control over key variables
E - For example, Zimbardo controlled for emotional stability because all participants were rates as emotionally stable before the experiment and randomly assigned to either the prisoner or guard group
E - This helped to rule out individual differences as an explanation of group differences (guards vs prisoners). Thus any differences in behaviour are due to social roles, not individual differences
L - This increases the validity of the study as it increases out confidence in the cause and effect relationship between social roles and behaviour
Three limitations of the Stanford Prison Experiment
Lack of Research Support
Exaggerated social influences
Population validity
EVALUATION: Lack of research support
P - A recent replication of the Stanford Prison Experiment (Reicher and Haslam) contradicts the findings of Zimbardo
E - Reicher and Haslam replicated Zimbardo’s research by randomly assigning 15 men to the role of prisoner or guard
E - In this replication, the participants did not conform to their social roles automatically. For example the guards did not identify with their status and refused to impose their authority; the prisoner’s identified as a group to challenge the guard’s authority, which resulted in a shift of power and a collapse of the prison system
L - These results clearly contradict the findings of Zimbardo and suggest that conformity to social roles may not be automatic as Zimbardo originally implied, but may in fact be more down to the shared social identity of a specific group
EVALUATION: Exaggerated social influences
P - Zimbardo may have overstated the impact of the circumstances on behaviour, which is a problem in the study
E - Zimbardo later pointed out that only roughly one-third of the guards had violent behaviour against the prisoners. The remaining guards assisted the prisoners or treated them fairly
E - Since not every guard was impacted by the situational variables, the situation could not have as much of an impact as Zimbardo predicted. This suggests that personality traits moderate situational pressuresto conform.
L - Consequently, reducing the validity of Zimbardo’s notion that situational conditions strongly influence social role conformity
EVALUATION: Population validity
P - A limitation of Zimbardo’s research is that his sample was lacking population validity
E - Zimbardo only used 21 US male participants. This means his sample was gender biased and unrepresentative of the general population as it consisted only males - cannot be applied to females
E - Additionally the study only included people from America so it wasn’t representative of other cultures
L - Therefore, Zimbardo’s study lacks population validity, reducing the validity of his findings
