Stanford Prison Experiment - Zimbardo et al (1974) Flashcards
What did Zimbardo want to find out with his experiment?
Whether brutality in prisons was:
Dispositional - personality of guards
Situational - prison environment
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment?
To investigate how readily people would conform to new social roles
What is the basic info/prep on Zimbardo’s study?
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
How many prisoners and guards were there in Zimbardo’s experiment?
10 prisoners - 3 to a room
11 guards - worked in set of 3 and 8-hour shift
What happened at the start of Zimbardo’s experiment?
- Prisoners arrested at home (no warning) - biometrics taken
- Blindfolded and taken to “prison” - barred doors, windows and plain bars
- Deindividuation process
- Guards dressed and equipped
- Zimbardo observed prisoners and guards as superintendent of the prison
What did Zimbardo tell the guards before the experiment?
Told to do anything to maintain the law except violence
How were the guards dressed?
Khaki uniform
Reflective sunglasses - no eye contact
Whistle
Billy club
What were the results of Zimbardo’s experiment?
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
How did the participants act overall in Zimbardo’s study?
Participants quickly identified into social roles
Prisoners generally dehumanised - insults, labour
Prisoners adopt prisoner-like behaviours
Prisoners became independent and submissive
What are the prisoner-like behaviours that the prisoners adopted?
Told tales on each other to please guards
Took rules a lot more seriously
What was the conclusion with Zimbardo’s study?
People quickly conform to social roles - even if it goes against morals
Situational factors were largely responsible for behaviour found in prisons
What are the Strengths of Zimbardo’s study/SPE experiment?
Goods level of control over variables
Good application to real life
Why did some participants leave early?
Uncontrollable bursts of screaming and crying - deep depression
How did Zimbardo have a good level of control over variables?
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
How does Zimbardo’s experiment have good application to real life?
Zimbardo argues that the social role effect in his study is the same as the situation in the Abu Ghraib prison
What happened in the Abu Ghraib Prison?
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
What are the weaknesses of Zimbardo’s experiment?
Conflicting Research Support - BBC Prison Study
Lots of Ethical issues - superintendent + deception
How did Zimbardo’s experiment lack research support?
Reicher and Hallam (2006) recreated the SPE study - BBC PRISON STUDY
Very different results
How did the BBC prison study have varying results from Zimbardo’s experiment?
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
How did Zimbardo’s experiment have ethical issues?
Zimbardo’s dual role as superintendent and researcher
Deception/Lack of informed consent
Psychological harm
How did Zimbardo’s dual role case major ethical issues?
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
How was deception/lack of informed consent an ethical issue in Zimbardo’s study?
Prisoners didn’t know they would be arrested at home - breach of Zimbardo’s contract that they signed
Why weren’t the prisoners told they would be arrested at home?
Researchers wanted it to be a surprise
It wasn’t approved by the police until minutes before participants decided to participate
How did Zimbardo’s experiment cause psychological harm?
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
