Topic 5- Social Influence

Question 1

Strengths Of Zimbardo

Answer 1

Participants were immersed in the prison environment - Possibly ecologically valid

Question 2

Weaknesses Of Zimbardo

Answer 2

Possible lack of ecological validity
Still a possibility that the participants were acting the way they thought they were expected to
Ungeneralisable
Sample only included male college students
Hard to generalise to real-life prisons

Question 3

Strengths of Piliavin

Answer 3

Study was conducted in a naturalistic environment (a subway) on passengers who regularly use the subway to commute
participants were unaware of being observed, so they behaved normally

Question 4

Weaknesses of Zimbardo

Answer 4

Passengers did not give their consent to take part in the experiment
Situation could have caused distress to participants