Social Influence - Zimbardo & Conformity to social roles Flashcards
One strength of Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles is that…
it is high control over extraneous variables.
Give one example of a control over extraneous variables?
One example is the way in which the ppts were selected.
How were the ppts selected?
- Assessed the emotional stability of ppts prior to the experiment
- Randomly assigned ppts to the role of prisoners and guards
If guards and prisoners behaved differently, and were in the roles by chance, their behaviours…
must have been due to the role itself.
What did this allow Zimbardo to do?
- Accurately measure the power of social roles on levels of conformity
- Rather than it being affected by individual personality differences
Therefore, this increases the…
internal validity of Zimbardo’s research investigating conformity to social roles.
Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles has…
gender bias.
Why does Zimbardo’s research have gender bias?
He used a male only sample (Androcentric)
This makes it difficult to…
generalise the findings from this research to women.
What could be argued about the role of the guard and what would females not do?
- It was a violent role
- Females would not conform as they are stereotypically more caring and concerned towards others
This, reducing…
the external validity of the research into conformity to social roles.
A further weakness of Zimbardo’s research is that there were…
major ethical issues.
There was a…
Lack of informed consent
How was there a lack of informed consent?
- Prisoners did not consent to being arrested at the homes
- Were only told they were taking part in an experiment investigating prison life
What was one other ethical issue?
Not protected from harm
