social influence: Zimbardo's study of conformity to social roles Flashcards
What are dispositional factors?
Individual characteristics that influence behavior and actions in a person.
What are situational factors?
Influences that do not occur from within the individual but from the environment and other people around them.
What are social roles?
The parts people play as members of various social groups, accompanied by expectations of appropriate behavior.
What is an example of expectations for the role of a prison guard?
A prison guard is expected to be strict, responsible, and authoritative.
What was the aim of the Stanford prison experiment?
To determine if prison guards behave brutally due to sadistic personalities or if the situation creates such behavior.
What was the procedure for setting up the Stanford prison experiment?
Set up a mock prison with 24 male volunteers, randomly assigned roles of guards or prisoners.
what were all ppts tested for
emotional stability
What rights were given to prisoners in the Stanford prison experiment?
Three meals, three supervised toilet trips a day, and two visits per week.
how were prisoners escorted to the prison and what items did they have
They prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home, blindfolded, strip-searched, deloused and
issued a uniform and a number.
What items were guards given in the Stanford prison experiment?
Uniforms, clubs, whistles, and reflective sunglasses.
What role did Zimbardo take in the Stanford prison experiment?
Prison superintendent.
What concept does the use of uniform in the Stanford prison experiment illustrate?
De-individuation, leading to a loss of personal identity.
explain rules
prisoners were given 16 rules to follow which were enforced by guards
Guards were told to run the prison but not harm the prisoners
What behavior did the guards exhibit as the study progressed?
Their behavior became increasingly brutal and aggressive.
What was a significant result observed within 2 days of the experiment?
The prisoners rebelled against their harsh treatment by the guards.
They ripped their uniform, shouted and swore at the guards, who retaliated.
How long did the Stanford prison experiment last?
The study had to end after six days instead of the intended 14 days.
What effect did the rebellion have on the prisoners?
They became subdued, depressed, and anxious. > one prisoner went on hunder strike
Fill in the blank: The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home, blindfolded, ______, deloused and issued a uniform and a number.
strip-searched
true of false: there were 22 male ppts
FALSE > there were 24
what can we conclude from the study
The simulation revealed the power of the situation to influence people’s behaviour > shows the strong inflence of situational variables
Guards, prisoners and researches all conformed to their roles within the prison.
These roles were very easily taken on by the participants.
AO3: exaggerated results
Zimbardo exaggerated the power of the situation to influence behaviour and minimise the role of personality.
Only a minority of the guards behaved in a brutal manner. The others were keen on applying the rules fairly, and actively trying to help and support the prisoners.
WEAKNESS as this suggests that Zimbardo’s conclusion, that participants were conforming to social roles may be over-stated.
So findings lack validity
AO3: high internal validity
One strength of this study is that there was control over key variables
eg: emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles of guards and prisoner
STRENGTH as it ruled out the influence of personality. If guards and prisoners behaved very differently, but were in those roles by chance, then their behaviour must have been due to the role itself. As a result, the study has high internal validity and we can be certain about the influence of social roles on conformity
AO3: demand characteristics
A weakness of the study is that it is demand characteristics
Banuazizi and Mohavedi argued that the participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role.Their performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave.
This suggests that the prison guards figured out the aim of the experiment and acted accordingly. So their behaviour way not natural and was unlikely due to prison guards conforming to their social role. Therefore the study lacks internal validity.
COUNTER: However, the prison guards did believe the situation was real. Prisoner 416 expressed the view that the prison was a real one but run by psychologists rather than the government. On balance, it seems that the situation was real to the participants, which gives the study a high degree of internal validity.
AO3: dual roles
A major ethical issue arose because of Zimbardo’s dual roles in the study.
Zimbardo was the researcher and superintedent
A ppt who wanted to leave the study spoke to Zimbardo. The whole conversation was conducted on the basis that the student was a prisoner in a prison, asking to be released. Zimbardo responded to him as a superintendent and refused.
WEAKNESS as Zimbardo was more concerned with the running of his prison, rather than the rights of his participants. Zimbardo encouraged the prisoner to stay in the experiment and therefore preventing participants right to withdraw.
In addition, Zimbardo’s role in the experiment may have undermined the validity of the results, due to researcher bias. As he may have interpreted the findings subjectively in order to support his hypothesis so findings would lack validity
