social roles Flashcards
who conducted the research
Zimbardo
procedure
21 emotionally stable uni students, male, randomly allocated roles of prisoners and guards in mock prison
social roles reinforced through uniforms - loose smock and cap vs baton and sunglasses
social roles reinforcement through instructions about behaviour - prisoners applied for parole to leave study
findings
guards treated prisoners harshly - harassed them constantly eg night-time headcounts, would make try to make prisoners go against eachother
prisoners - tried to rebel but failed, became more depressed
study ended after six days
de-individuation
uniforms created a loss of personal identity (de-individuation) and meant they would be more likely to conform to the perceived role
conclusions
social roles have a strong influence on behaviour - brutal guards, submissive prisoners
social roles can be very easily adopted - including by volunteers such as prison chaplain who had come into study with specific function found themself behaving as if they were in prison
what are social roles
the parts people play as members of various social groups
control
P - strength of the stanford prison experiment is control over key variables
E - seen in selection of participants - only emotionally-stable individuals chosen then randomly assigned roles
E - ruled out individual personality differences - acting different was due to role and but the person
L - increases internal validity of the study - we can be more confident in drawing conclusions about influence of roles on conformity
lack of realism
P - limitation is it did not have the realism of a true prison
E - Banuazizi and Movahedi - participants play-acting rather than genuinely conforming
E - performances based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards act - one guard claimed he based role from film Cool Hand Luke - also explains why prisoners rioted
L - findings let us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons
P - McDermott argues that participants did behave as if prison was real to them
E - 90% of prisoners’ conversations were about prison life - discussed how its impossible to leave before sentences over
E - Prisoner 416 explained how he believed the prison was real but run by psychologists rather than the government
L - SPE did replicate the social roles of prisoners and guards in a real prison - internal validity
exaggerates the power of roles
P - limitation is Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour - From 1973
E - only 1/3rd of guards actually brutal, another 1/3 was fair and remaining tried to help and support prisoners
E - sympathised, offered cigarettes and reinstated privileges - most were able to resist situational pressures to conform
L - Zimbardo overstated view that SPE participants were conforming to social roles and minimised the influence of dispositional factors
