Social Roles Flashcards
What are social roles?
Parts people play as parts of various social groups —> have a set of expectations and behaviours associated with them
What is the name of Zimbardo’s study into social roles?
Haney et al (1973)
Describe the procedure of Zimbardos research into social roles
-Set up a mock prison in the psychology department of Stanford University
- Student volunteers were screened for emotional stability and randomly assigned to the roles of prisoners or guards
- The social roles were strictly divided; guards had uniform, clubs and reflective sunglasses; prisoners were referred to by their numbers and were arrested in their homes
What were the general findings of Zimbardo’s study?
After two days there was a rebellion; guards harassed and humiliated prisoners whilst prisoners became depressed and anxious; Study had to stop after 6 days rather than intended 14
What were the conclusions of Zimbardo’s study?
Participants and even researcher conformed easily to their roles in the prison; social roles are easily adopted
Give a strength of Zimbardo’s study into social roles
+ Réal world application - findings could be used to explain real phenomena such as Nazi soldiers or Abu Ghraib prison, and train soldiers etc with this in mind & educate them on the dangers of conforming to social roles
+ High control of variables - ppts were screened for emotional stability , which rules out individual differences ; increased internal validity
Give limitations of Zimbardo’s study into social roles
Demand characteristics - ppts were aware they were in a study and may have acted how they thought they were expected to , reduced authenticity of behaviour
Unethical - prisoners were psychologically harmed, some leaving early due to mental breakdown ; means findings are only relevant to the time as they could not be carried out today
Unrepresentative sample - All participants were all young American men from the same school and area —> reduced generalisability as study lacks population validity and may be culturally biased
Particpant observation - Zimbardo acted as prison warden, meaning his observations lacked objectivity
Findings exaggerated - Fromm (1973) suggested he over exaggerated the power of the situation; only a small minority of guards behaved brutally - means conclusions may be overstated
