🟣 Social Influence - Conformity to Social Roles Flashcards
What is a social role
The behaviour expected of an individual who occupies a given social position of status
What does it mean to conform to a social role
The extent to which people behave in the expected manners according to their social roke
Experiment for conforming to social roles
Zimbardos prison study, 1971
Procedure of Zimbardo’s prison study
- mock prison set up in basement of Stamford uni
- advertised for volunteers and selected those who were deemed ‘emotionally stable’
- 24 male students randomly assigned guards or prisoners (flipped a coin)
- prisoners arrested in home and delivered to prison
- deindividualated (prisoners) stripped
- very strict daily routine for prisoners - 16 rules given to be followed
- guards khaki uniform and told they had complete power over prisoners
Findings of Zimbardos prison study
- guards became fully invested in their social roles
- stopped after 6 days rather than 14 because guards became threat to physical and mental wellbeing of prisoners
- 2 days, prisoners rebelled
- guards would retaliate with aggressive, meaningless commands
- one prisoner released on first day after showing psychological disturbance
- 2 more released on 4th and one began hunger strike
Conclusion of Zimbardos prison experiment
- showed power of situation will influence people’s behaviour
- all conformed to their social roles
- roles easily taken on
- Zimbardo himself lost control of his and others actions
2 Strengths of Zimbardos prison experiment
- prison reforms occurred in the USA
- no bias to assigning men to either role, rules our individual personality difference
What did Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) state
Participants were play-acting rather than conforming to a role. Based on stereotypes on how they were supposed to behave
What percentage of conversations was about prison life
90%
What did Fromm (1973) state about the prison experiment
Accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation. Only a minority of the guards behaved brutally, a third applied the rules fairly and the rest attempted to aid prisoners. Conclusion may be overstated
What psychologists commented on the experiment
- banuazizi and mohavedi (1975) = participants were play acting rather than conforming
- Fromm (1973) = Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation
- Reicher and Haslam (2006) BBC STUDY = opposite to original study
Real life application - ABU GHRAIB
Zimbardo said his study explained behaviour of American soldiers. ‘Lucifer effect’ good people put in bad situations do bad things. Zimbardo acted as an expert witness in subsequent trials of the US soldiers, the highest ranking officer present
