Zimbardo Flashcards
What was zimbardo aim
To investigate how people would conform to their social role in a controlled environment
What was zimbardo procedure
-mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford uni
-24 male volunteers who either played the role as the guard or prisoner
-both roles wore uniform and assigned a number and were deloused
-guards were given props such as handcuffs and sunglasses, whistle
-guards worked 8 hrs then went home
-prisoners had 2 visits per week, 3 meals,supervised toilet trips
What was zimbardo findings
- Over the first few days guards became abusive and cruel to prisoners
- they woke prisoners in the night to clean toilets with bare hands
-guards were enthusiastic about their role and worked extra hours no pay
-prisoners were released early because of their anxiety,rage and crying
-the study was stopped after 6 days
AO3-strength-real life applications
+the study had real life applications as the research changed the way US prisons are run
-e.g young prisoners are no longer kept with adult prisoners so bad behaviour isnt catched by the young prisoners
- also explains events of the Abu Chraib as the us soldiers abused Iraq prisoners and zimbardo found factors such as lack of training,no accountability to higher authority which is similar to Stanford prison
-therefore his research had real applications to explain why the guards abused prisoners due to these factors and power associated with the role of guard
AO3-weakness- ethical
—zimbardo study has been criticised for being unethical despite following the guidelines of the Stanford uni ethical committee
-it has been acknowledged that the study should of been stopped sooner due to many pps experiencing emotional distress
However zimbardo did do debriefing sessions yet 2 psychologist repeated the experiment to minimise harm of pps
-so they created a test that was not harmful yet zimbardo study shows that it would be deemed as unacceptable to modern ethical standards
AO3-weakness-lacks population validity
—the study only used American male students so it lack’s population validity
-this shows that the findings can not be generalised to other genders or cultures
-for example collectivist cultures such as china or Japan may be more conformist to their social role because such cultures value the needs of the group rather than am individual
-suggests such findings may be culture bound
AO3-weakness-demand characteristics
— it is argued that the behaviour of pps was due to demand characteristics rather than conformity
-they presented some details of the SPE procedure to a large sample of students who have never heard of the study
-so the majority may of guessed the aim of the study which is to see how ordinary people would act as a real prisoner or guard
-this suggests the behaviour of the guards or prisoners was not due to social conformity in a prison environment instead it was demand characteristics so the evidence lacks validity
