topic 5 - Zimbardo et al (1973) Prison Study

Question 1

what was the background of the study?

Answer 1

Zimbardo et al set up a mock prison in order to investigate the conditions under which people became aggressive. They observed that prisons in the US had a lot of internal conflict between guards and prisoners. They wanted to understand how the conflict between eh guards and prisoners arose. The Navy funded their study but they also wanted to understand the high levels of aggression in naval prisoners.

At the time, most of the blame was put upon the prisoners as they were labelled as evil people. Prisoners were seen as the aggressive types and naturally resorted to violence. Some disagreed and suggested that the close contact between prisoners and guards created a situation where conflict could arise.

Question 2

what were the aims of the study?

Answer 2

to investigate prisoner-guard conflict in a simulated mock prison environment.

Question 3

what was the procedure?

Answer 3

• An advert was placed in the newspaper asking for volunteers to take part in a study for prison life.
• 75 people responded and 22 people were selected to take part.
• one dropped out, so that left 10 prisoners and 11 guards.
• roles were assigned randomly and at a flip of a coin.
• all participants were male college students and were psychologically healthy.
• each were paid $15 a day for their participation
• simulated prison was set up in the basement of Standford university which consisted of 3 cells with steel bar doors, a yard area, a guardroom and a closet for solitary confinement.
• transactions were recorded between the participants
• experiment was aimed to have a duration of 2 weeks.
• guards were briefed before experiment and were asked to maintain order in the prison.
• guards were not given specific instructions of what to do or how to behave
• guards were dressed in military styled uniforms, given batons and wore reflective sunglasses.
• prisoners were arrested by real officers from the city police department and charged on suspicion of burglary or armed robbery
• they were handcuffed, searched and taken to the mock prison in Standford University
• In Standford, they were stripped and each prisoner was given cloths to wear which had their prisoner number on it
• prisoners had to be referred to as their number for the duration of the study
• prisoners spent a long time in their cells but were allowed privileges such as: watching a movie and visits from their family.
• 3 guards worked 8 hour shifts and conducted a ‘prisoner count’ at the start of every shift
• prisoners were lined up and recited their identification number.

Question 4

what were the results of the study?

Answer 4

• after a few hours, guards were observed to become more aggressive and controlling towards prisoners. this increased over the course of the study. from this came punishments for the prisoners and they had to do push-ups, solitary confinement and were verbally assaulted.
• on the second day, prisoners rebelled through barricading their doors in the entrance of their cells but this was soon overpowered by the guards who used a fire extinguisher to break into their cells and place the ring leaders in solitary confinement.
• over the course of the study, the guards increasingly intimidated the prisoners and there was an escalation of verbal abuse and punishment.
• individual differences between the prisoners were observed as some prisoners were passive while others were actively rebellious. there were individual differences between guards with someone instigating aggression while others were more reluctant to engage in conflict.
• study was stopped after 6 days due to the behaviour of the prisoners and guards were getting out of control. Many prisoners displayed signs of anxiety and depression and were desperate to leave the study.

Question 5

what were the conclusions of the study?

Answer 5

• both prisoners and guards were immersed in the simulated prison environment
• both prisoners and guards conformed to their role that they had been assigned. Prisoners became submissive and passive while the guards became aggressive and hostile.
• the uniforms the participants were given deindividuated them which caused their change in behaviour. They lost their personal identity and adopted the identities which they were given.
• the prisoners in particular were stripped of their own personal identity. Numbers replaced their names, rags replaced their clothes. They were broken down and humiliated through punishments and menial tasks.

Question 6

what were the strengths of the study?

Answer 6

1. there was evidence to suggest that the participants of the study were not acting. The recordings of the transactions showed that most of the time, prisoners discussed their prison life rather than their personal lives. This shows that they were becoming immersed in the situation rather than merely acting.
2. the study was conducted on male, white college students therefore it is difficult to apply the findings to real life prison populations which are more diverse. This limits the generalisability of the findings. However, it has informed the way in which prisons are run and can explain the atrocities that have occurred in prison situations.

Question 7

what were the weaknesses of the study?

Answer 7

1. distress was caused to the participants who were prisoners. They were subjected to physical and psychological harm at the hands of the other participants who were guards. One prisoner had to be removed after just 35 hours because they were emotionally distressed. The study was stopped after 6 days because the behaviour of the participants were getting out of hand . After the experiment, all the participants were debriefs and given psychological evaluations after the study to ensure their well-being.
2. the participants knew that they were taking part in a simulated prison. A clear difference between a real prison and a simulated/ mock prison is that the participants knew that it was a simulation and that they would only be imprisoned for a maximum of two weeks. Both the prisoners and guards could have simply been acting in a way which they thought was expected of them rather than demonstrating real behaviour in the situation. This lowers the ecological validity