Zimbardo Flashcards
What is the background for Zimbardo?
Influenced by reports of indoctrination and ‘brainwashing’ coming out of Korean War
Origins of study: 1971 undergraduate exercise
Wanted to disprove dispositional explanations
What were the aims of Zimbardo?
Create a realistic prison simulation
Why alleged brutality and violence in
American prisons?
When can a role-playing simulation become
so real that it becomes more than just a
game?
Who were the PPs for Zimbardo and how were they found?
Ad placed for Ps to take part in a study on prison life for $15 a day for 2 weeks
25 Ps selected from an initial pool of 75
Half Ps randomly assigned to guards (11), half as prisoners (10)
Some Ps dropped out early on or were excluded due to unusual test results
Ps were male college students
What happened to the male prisoners at the start of the experiment?
Ps arrested at their home (taken by surprise)
Ps fingerprinted at the police station and left in isolation cell
Blindfolded and transported to the “Stanford County Prison”
Stripped naked, searched, issued a uniform and taken to cell
What were the cells like?
Basement corridor of Stanford University
3 small cells made, complete with steel
barred doors
Only furniture was a bed in each cell
What were the PPs told of the aim?
Told that aim was to simulate a prison environment, within limits of ethical considerations
Their task was to maintain the reasonable degree of order within the prison necessary for its effective functioning.” (Zimbardo, 1975)
Specifics of how this duty should be implemented were not specified
Guards generally believed primary focus of interest was on prisoner behaviour
What were the lives of the guards?
Guards worked in shifts and didn’t live at the prison
Who looked at the role internalisation?
Haney et al 1972
Role internalisation?
Both guards and prisoners quickly internalised their roles, with many of the guards becoming sadistic and the prisoners becoming increasingly helpless or obedient
What effect did the uniform have?:
In order to promote anonymity, identical uniforms given to each
group
Promotes perception of others as members of a group + lowers
inhibitions
Who looked at de-individuation?
Haney et al 1972
How de-individuation occur?
The guards were able to hide behind their uniforms and the authority given to them
Prisoners, stripped of their personal identity and referred to only by numbers, also experienced a sense of deindividuation
Effect of sunglasses on guards?
Eye contact impossible, no none verbal cues
What were the observations?
Guards became more aggressive over time – every guard was abusive; about a third were ‘sadistic’
Prisoners suffered mental anguish
Stopped exp after 6 days
5 ‘prisoners’ had to be released because of “extreme emotional depression, crying, rage and acute anxiety”
Gs seemed to enjoy their power and control
What was administered for observations?
Personality measures tests
Interviews
Observation records
Diaries
What are examples of the guards sadism?
Guards retaliated strongly when prisoners rebelled
Physical punishment
Degraded prisoners
Solitary confinement
Tried to split the prisoners
Sometimes denied basic rights
What is pathology of power?
What is pathological prisoner syndrome?
What was the change in diary entries for the guards?
First day= claimed to be a pacifist and non-aggressive
Fifth day= Physically aggressive by forcefeeding a prisoner
What happened with the psychological aspects of time?
Institutionalisation breaks up continuity
Apparent circularity of time
People overreact to minor stimuli and fail to plan for
major events
What defined anonymity?
Zimbardo 1975
What is anonymity?
Conditions that reduce a person’s sense of uniqueness, that minimize individuality, are the wellsprings of antisocial behaviors
What is the anonymity in prisons?
Uniforms, numbers, standard hair cuts, limits on
personal property and personalising cells
Limited possessions become things to fight for
he ‘ecology of de-humanisation’ – prison design
Minimising privacy, mass eating, mass exercise
Who looked at the value of the SPE?
Newtin & Zimbardo 1975
Orlando 1973
What did Newton & Zimbardo find?
The study has been presented to a great many
civic, judicial, military, and law enforcement
groups
What did Orlando 1973 find?
Its role playing procedures have been used
with mental health staff
Who looked at replication?
Lovibond et ak 1979
What did Lovibond et al find?
Its results have also been generally replicated
in another culture: New South Wales, Australia
Who critiqued Zimbardo?
Banuazizi, A. & Movahedi, S. (1975).
What did Banuazizi, A. & Movahedi, S. (1975) say?
The design of the experiment lacked sufficient controls to account for confounding variables
The behaviour of the participants was influenced by demand characteristics
Non-random assignment of roles in the experiment= biased outcomes
Behaviours exhibited by the participants (e.g., guards being abusive, prisoners becoming passive) might be explained by social expectations and the roles assigned to them, rather than the inherent power dynamics of prison life.
Who explored group identities and power structures?
Reicher & Haslam (2011)
What did Reicher & Haslam 2011 do?
The study involved 15 male participants who were randomly assigned to be either “guards” or “prisoners.” It took place over 8 days in a specially constructed setting that mimicked a prison.
What were the findings for Reicher & Haslam?
Emergency of tyranny
Resistance + group solidarity
Psychological process
Role of social identity
What is the emergence of tyranny?
How easily power could be abused and how quickly group dynamics could shift to oppressive behaviour.
What were the psych processes in Reicher & Haslam (2011)?
Conformity to social roles and group identity could influence behavior, even in people who were not initially predisposed to act in cruel or authoritarian ways
Resistance + group solidarity? (R+H)
Prisoners initially accepted their submissive roles, but over time they began to challenge the authority of the guards. This resistance was also driven by a collective sense of identity and solidarity among the prisoners, who began to see their oppression as a shared experience.
Role of social identity? (R+H)
Behaviour of both guards and prisoners was influenced by their social identity, rather than individual personality traits. The guards became more authoritarian as they identified with their role and the power it gave them. Prisoners, on the other hand, formed a sense of solidarity and resistance against the guards.
