Stanford Prison Experiment - Zimbardo et al (1974)

Question 1

What did Zimbardo want to find out with his experiment?

Answer 1

Whether brutality in prisons was:
Dispositional - personality of guards
Situational - prison environment

Question 2

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 2

To investigate how readily people would conform to new social roles

Question 3

What is the basic info/prep on Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 3

Basement of Stanford Uni Psych building made into mock prison
Advertised at this uni for volunteers
75 applications - 24 MALES chosen after mental tests to see if they were normal

Question 4

How many prisoners and guards were there in Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 4

10 prisoners - 3 to a room
11 guards - worked in set of 3 and 8-hour shift

Question 5

What happened at the start of Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 5

1. Prisoners arrested at home (no warning) - biometrics taken
2. Blindfolded and taken to “prison” - barred doors, windows and plain bars
3. Deindividuation process
4. Guards dressed and equipped
5. Zimbardo observed prisoners and guards as superintendent of the prison

Question 6

What did Zimbardo tell the guards before the experiment?

Answer 6

Told to do anything to maintain the law except violence

Question 7

How were the guards dressed?

Answer 7

Khaki uniform
Reflective sunglasses - no eye contact
Whistle
Billy club

Question 8

What were the results of Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 8

Participants quickly identified into social roles
Prisoners rebelled in days - guards dehumanised prisoners more after that
Prisoners became more submissive
Some released early due to adverse reactions

Terminated after 6 days when Zimbardo was told his experiment was inhumane

Question 9

How did the participants act overall in Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 9

Participants quickly identified into social roles

Prisoners generally dehumanised - insults, labour

Prisoners adopt prisoner-like behaviours

Prisoners became independent and submissive

Question 10

What are the prisoner-like behaviours that the prisoners adopted?

Answer 10

Told tales on each other to please guards
Took rules a lot more seriously

Question 11

What was the conclusion with Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 11

People quickly conform to social roles - even if it goes against morals

Situational factors were largely responsible for behaviour found in prisons

Question 12

What are the Strengths of Zimbardo’s study/SPE experiment?

Answer 12

Goods level of control over variables

Good application to real life

Question 13

Why did some participants leave early?

Answer 13

Uncontrollable bursts of screaming and crying - deep depression

Question 14

How did Zimbardo have a good level of control over variables?

Answer 14

Chose emotionally stable males and selected their roles at random, eliminating experimenter bias - shows behaviour was due to environment, not personality

Increases the internal validity of the experiment

Question 15

How does Zimbardo’s experiment have good application to real life?

Answer 15

Zimbardo argues that the social role effect in his study is the same as the situation in the Abu Ghraib prison

Question 16

What happened in the Abu Ghraib Prison?

Answer 16

2003-4 USA military police committed human rights violation against Iraqi prisoners

Zimbardo argued they were victims of situational factors

Lack of training, boredom and no accountability was present in SPE and Abu Ghraib

Question 17

What are the weaknesses of Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 17

Conflicting Research Support - BBC Prison Study

Lots of Ethical issues - superintendent + deception

Question 18

How did Zimbardo’s experiment lack research support?

Answer 18

Reicher and Hallam (2006) recreated the SPE study - BBC PRISON STUDY
Very different results

Question 19

How did the BBC prison study have varying results from Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 19

Prisoners took control of guards and harassed them

Explained by the social identity theory - prisoners identified themselves as members of a social group that refused to accept limits of assigned roles as prisoners

Question 20

How did Zimbardo’s experiment have ethical issues?

Answer 20

Zimbardo’s dual role as superintendent and researcher

Deception/Lack of informed consent

Psychological harm

Question 21

How did Zimbardo’s dual role case major ethical issues?

Answer 21

A student asked to leave and Zimbardo answered as a superintendent, not a researcher

Zimbardo reasoned with the student as a superintendent rather than as a researcher who is responsible for his participants

Question 22

How was deception/lack of informed consent an ethical issue in Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 22

Prisoners didn’t know they would be arrested at home - breach of Zimbardo’s contract that they signed

Question 23

Why weren’t the prisoners told they would be arrested at home?

Answer 23

Researchers wanted it to be a surprise

It wasn’t approved by the police until minutes before participants decided to participate

Question 24

How did Zimbardo’s experiment cause psychological harm?

Answer 24

Adverse reactions to this experiment was seen as some students started crying, screaming and exhibiting signs of depression as they were tortured by the guards