T3: Lecture 7 Flashcards
When Zimbardo initiated guards what type of language did he use and what was the effect of this?
He used the terms ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘they’ which created a different
-Exhortions of control and creating fear in prisoners encouraged toxic behaviour in guards
What were the three distinct phases of the experiment?
- Settling in period
- Guards took authoritative positions more seriously
- Guards become galvinised
What happened in the ‘settling in period’?
- Guards and prisoners were not fully in their roles
- Guards appeared awkward/uncomfortable in the role
- Prisoners didn’t take it seriously, made fun of the guards
What happened in the ‘guards took positions more seriously’ phase?
- Participants put in the hole (solitary confinement)
- Created shared grievances amongst prisoners->rebelled against the guards
What happened in the ‘guards becoming galvanised’ phase?
- Rebelling prisoners punished, well behaved prisoners rewarded with privileges
- Guards became increasingly brutal
- One prisoner had an emotional breakdown
What does this study suggest?
Ordinary can be transformed by immediate context to perform brutality
What did Carnahan and Macfarland investigate?
- Investigated if there were unusual character aspects to type of volunteers participating in similar studies
- Compared personality profiles of people who agreed to partake
- Those agreeing
- > Authoritarian, narcissistic, socially dominant
- > Less empathetic and altruistic
What were the characteristic split between the guards?
- 1/3 became sadistic towards prisoners
- 1/3 were fair
- 1/3 were kind
- Some guards saw themselves as research assistants
In Lovibond et al study what were the findings/method?
- Prison study under 3 conditions
1. Democratic
2. Participatory
3. Authoritarian - 1 and 2 were, prisoners were respected
- 3 the guard behaviour became toxic
What were the findings from Reicher and Haslam’s study?
- Guards weren’t told what to do, causing them to disagree about their roles
- Prisoners developed shared sense of identify and resisted the guards
- Guards became disillusion, prisoners developed a sense of efficacy
For people to take on roles what conditions have to be met?
- Have to identify with the role
- Have to incorporate into sense of self
Shared sense of identity in High Status groups vs Low status groups
- HIGH: can lead to brutality when promoted by tyrannical leader
- LOW: can allow resist of oppression rather than succumb to it
What does interaction between persona and context lead to?
Tyranny and resistance
How is interaction dynamic?
- Context transforms individuals
- Individuals transform content through capacity to represent, lead, and mobilise people
- People have the capacity to support or resist tyranny