Social influence: Conformity to social roles Flashcards
What are social roles?
Are the behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status.
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study?
To investigate situational vs dispositional factors in prisons.
What was the sample of the research? Zimbardo
21 male university students were picked and were separated into 10 guards and 11 prisoners. Zimbardo was warden. Offered $15 a day.
What was the role of the prisoners like?
They were dehumanised, deloused, fingerprinted and stripped. They were unexpectedly arrested at their homes and they were forced to wear bleak uniforms and were referred to by the number sewn on them.
What was the role of the guards like?
They wore superior uniforms, including sunglasses. They were instructed not to physically harm the prisoners, but that was all they were instructed on. They were allowed to leave the building after their shift and go home.
How were the prisoners placed in the prison?
They were placed 3 to a cell.
How long was the research planned to take place? Zimbardo
Planned to be 2 weeks, but was cut short.
What were the findings of the research? Zimbardo
- First day passed without any incidents.
- Rebellion broke out on the second day.
- Guards punished them by breaking in their cells, forced ringleaders into solidarity confinement and made to clean toilets.
- 3 prisoners least involved in the rebellion were given privileges.
- Within 36 hours, prisoner 8612 suffered from acute emotional disturbance.
- Ended after 6 days as it was too unethical.
What was the conclusion of the research? Zimbardo
People will conform to the social roles they’re expected to play. The roles have has a significant effect on behaviour. Effect of innate personality is weaker than the external situation.
A03: Conformity to social roles
+ Practical application
+ Lab study
- Lack of ethics
- Lacking ecological validity
A03: Practical application
Zimbardo argues that conformity to social roles can be used to explain the events in Abu Ghraib, a military prison in Iraq notorious for the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers in 2003 and 2004. As was the case in the SPE, Zimbardo believe that the guards who committed these abuses were the victims of the situation of factors that made abuse more likely. These factors, such as a lack of training, unrelenting boredom and no accountability to high authority will present both in the SPE and Abu Ghraib. Zimbardo concludes that these factors, combined with an opportunity to misuse power associated with the role of the guard led the prisoner abuse in both situations.
A03: Lab study
Zimbardo’s study was conducted in a laboratory experiment and therefore, a strength of the study is that there was a high degree of control. For example, Zimbardo was able to control many aspects of the study in terms of who were allocated the role of the guards/prisoners, the prisoners being arrested at their homes etc. This is a strength because the research can be seen to have high internal validity and there a cause and effect relationship can be established.
A03: Lack of ethics
The study can be criticised on ethical grounds for not protecting the participants and not gaining full informed consent. For example, many of the prisoners were reported to suffer from extreme stress throughout the experiment (some developed skin rashes and complaints characteristic of a stress response), in addition, the prisoners were arrested at their homes without giving consent for this to happen. Many of the prisoners reported embarrassment that their neighbours, family and friends has witnessed their ‘fake’ arrest. This is a weakness because, as stated in the BPS guidelines it is important that all participants are protected and leave an experiment in the same state in which they entered. Furthermore, participants should not be deceived in research as full informed consent must be obtained.
A03: Lacking ecological validity
Zimbardo’s research can be criticised as lacking ecological validity. For example, the participants were placed in an unfamiliar artificial setting and were expected to carry out an artificial task (the prisoners knew that they were not actually in prison and so many researchers have stated that the prisoners and guards were just simply playing a game and were not actually buying into the roles. This is a weaknesses as the study is not reflective of the participants real life behaviour and therefore the findings regarding social roles from the study cannot be generalised beyond the artificial setting.
