Social Influence (Stanford Prison Experiment) Flashcards
Who and what year was the Stanford Prison Experiment??
Zimbardo in 1971!
What did Zimbardo want to investigate with the Stanford Prison Experiment??
If prison guards behave brutally because they have sadist personalities or is it the situation that creates this behaviour??
What are social roles??
The parts that people play as members of a social group & the expectations that come with it
Summarise 3 key ideas of the Stanford Prison Experiment
- Volunteer sampling
- Random allocation
- Lasted 6 days (but was meant to be 2 weeks)
- Both guards and prisoners settled into their roles very quickly
What happened to Prisoner #819 in the Stanford Prison Experiment??
Began showing signs of distress. Zimbardo took him to another room where he could hear the other prisoners chanting about how bad he was as a prisoner. He wanted to go back to prove them wrong but Zimbardo had to tell him that he was not prisoner #819, he was [real name] and he snapped out of his trance and agreed to leave.
What happened on day 5 of the Stanford Prison Experiment??
Visitations from family. Many family members asked Zimbardo about the safety of the prisoner but he just responded by questioning the prisoner’s toughness.
Most families left with the aim of getting a lawyer.
What were the 2 reasons that the Stanford Prison Experiment was ended prematurely??
- Guards escalated the abuse at night when they thought researchers weren’t watching
- Christina Maslach severely questioned the morality after visiting
Is the Stanford prison experiment generalisable and reliable??
Not generalisable -> Not similar to normal prison environment, only done by white, young men
High reliability -> Controlled environment so can be easily replicated
Discuss the applicability and ethics of the Stanford Prison Experiment
High application -> Can be used to explain the behaviours at Abu Ghraib
Unethical -> Psychological harm (against protection & harm), prisoners not told they would be ‘arrested’ (deception & informed consent)
What was the validity of the Stanford Prison experiment??
Low external validity -> not similar to the regular prison environment
high internal validity -> Controlled environment, each volunteer given personality test to ensure they were emotionally stable enough to take part, random assignment
Who argued that there was a lack of realism in the Stanford Prison Experiment and when??
Banuazizi & Mohavedi in 1975
What did Banuazizi & Mohavedi argue for the Stanford prison Experiment and how could this possible be disproved??
Argued that prisoners & guards acted on stereotypes they had seen in the media.
However, quantitative data collected by Zimbardo showed that 90% of conversations were about prison life.
Who argued that there were dispositional influences in the Stanford Prison Experiment and when??
Fromm in 1973
What did Fromm argue about the Stanford Prison Experiment and what evidence is there to disprove this??
Zimbardo minimised personality factors when drawing conclusions.
However… 1/3 behaved brutally, 1/3 applied the roles fairly and 1/3 supported the prisoners and reinstalled privileges
(shows that individual differences lead some guards to be able to differentiate between right & wrong)
