social influence - conformity to social roles (zimbardo)

Question 1

What is meant by conformity to social roles?

Answer 1

• social roles = parts that people play as members of various social groups
• come with expectations of appropriate behaviour
• we internalise these expectations which shape our behaviour

Question 2

What is the aim of zimbardo’s study?

Answer 2

• to investigate how freely people conform
• to roles of prisoner and gaurd
• in role playing exercise that recreated prison life

Question 3

Zimbardos AO1 procedure

Answer 3

• ppts randomly allocated roles of guard and prisoner
• prisoners: arrested from homes, searched, deloused, given uniforms, referred to by numbers
• guards: given night sticks, mirror glasses, uniforms, told to keep prisoners under control without using physical violence
• uniforms created de-individuation
• Stanford uni basement turned into mock prison
• prisoners had meal times, visiting times
• zimbardos role - prison superintendent
• if prisoners wanted to leave, parole process

Question 4

Sample

Answer 4

24 emotionally stable male US university students (volunteer sample)

Question 5

Zimbardo findings AO1

Answer 5

• within a day prisoners rebelled
• ripped off their numbers
• guards locked cells and confiscated blankets
• guards punishments escalated as time went on
• prisoners humiliated and sleep deprived
• identification noticed as prisoners referred to each other by numbers instead of names
• prisoners quickly became subdued, depressed, some showed stress related actions
• 3 prisoners released early (showed signs of psychological disturbance)
• experimented intended to last 2 weeks, called off after 6 days

Question 6

Zimbardo - Criticism: demand characteristics (AO3)

Answer 6

P - prone to demand characteristics

E - z was prison superintendent
- may have influenced

E - ppts may have conformed as they believed z wanted them to
- rather than actually conforming to role
- ppts were paid further influencing this

L - lowers internal validity

Question 7

Zimbardo - Weakness: gender bias (AO3)

and counter

Answer 7

P - gender bias
- male only sample (andocentric)

E - difficult to generalise to women

E - females are stereotypically more caring/concerning
- may not conform as much

L - weakens external validity

counter:
- z wanted to investigate brutality in US prisons
- usually male dominated guards
- so males were used

Question 8

Zimbardo - Weakness: ethical issues (AO3)

and counter

Answer 8

P - ethical issues

E - lack of informed consent
- lack of protection from harm
- lack of right to withdraw

E - unaware they were being arrested from homes
- some showed signs of psychological disturbance
- had to ask z to be released - z responded as superintendent rather than researcher with responsibility

L - limits appropriateness

counter
- z carried out debriefing sessions for years after
- concluded there was no long lasting effects

Question 9

Zimbardo - Strength: practical application (AO3)

Answer 9

P - practical applications
- used to predict and explain behaviour in todays world

E - abu ghariab prison in iraq
- actions displayed similar to z’s findings
- guards tortured, humiliated, abused prisoners

E - z’s research used when developing intervention programmes
- used for training purposes in prisons

L - high external validity
- important part of applied psych