SOCIAL INFLUENCE - zimbardo’s research

Question 1

who performed research into conformity to social roles? what was the experiment called?

Answer 1

• zimbardo

the stanford prison experiment

Question 2

what did ZIMBARDO set up?

Answer 2

• a mock prison

under stanford university

Question 3

what sampling method did ZIMBARDO use?

Answer 3

• volunteer sampling

and then randomly assigned roles to prison or guard

Question 4

what improved the realism of the experiment?

Answer 4

• prisoners arrested from their homes
• prisoners issued a uniform and number
• guards issued uniform with appropriate equipment

Question 5

what did the prisoners and guards have to do?

Answer 5

• prisoners had 16 rules to follow

- guards enforced the rules and were told they had complete power over the prisoners

Question 6

what were ZIMBARDO’s findings in reference to the guards?

Answer 6

• they used real-life tactics
  (divide-and-rule)
• would over-punish prisoners with brutal behaviour

Question 7

what were ZIMBARDO’s findings in reference to the prisoners?

Answer 7

• typical ‘prisoner behaviour’ occurred
  (hunger strikes)
• refer to each other by number

Question 8

what happened to ZIMBARDO?

Answer 8

• he adopted the role of superintendent and this took over his role as psychologist as he reacted to participants wanting to leave
  (other volunteers such as prison chaplain adhered to their roles quickly)

Question 9

what was ZIMBARDO’s conclusion?

Answer 9

• people conform swiftly to roles they are given in society

Question 10

EVALUATION

what did BANUAZIZI and MOHAVEDI say? and how does this relate to ZIMBARDO?

Answer 10

• argued that participants were merely playing a role as seen in films
  (stereotypes)
  so…
• reduces the internal validity of the study

HOWEVER

• zimbardo stated quantitative evidence that 90% of prisoner conversation was prison-related and some expressed views of it being a real prison

Question 11

EVALUATION

what did FROMM say? and how does this relate to ZIMBARDO?

Answer 11

• accuses zimbardo of exaggerating results and ignoring dispositional influences
  (only 1/3 of guards were brutal to prisoners, the rest sympathised)
  so…
• reduces the reliability of the study as another researcher would not find them results

Question 12

EVALUATION

what did REICHER and HASLAM do? and how does this relate to ZIMBARDO?

Answer 12

• replicated the study on the BBC and found that the prisoners took over the prison due to their shared social identity which the guards did not achieve
  (social identity theory)
  so…
• reduces reliability of the study as they found varied results