Zimbardo 1973 Flashcards
What was Zimbardo’s aim? (2)
1) To investigate the extent to which people conform to a social role = parts individuals play with the expectations of behavior (either a prisoner or guard)
2) To test dispostional use of situational explanation of prison violence
What was Zimbardo’s method? (5)
1) 75 male uni students responded to a newspaper article and were told they were going to be paid $15 per day for 2 weeks
2) Zimbardo gave each RPS a survey and picked 21 of the most stable to take part where they were randomly assigned a role
3) Zimbardo was the superintendent
4) The basement of the psychology department at Yale uni was turned into a mock prison, those who were guards we given a uniform, baton, mirrored sunglasses, handcuffs, keys to all doors and work shifts for the duration of the study
5) Prisoners were arrested, finger printed, stripped and deloused (with the aim to dehumanise them) then dressed in smocks and given a number instead of a name. Then placed in a cell as well as visiting time.
What was Zimbardo’s findings? (7)
1) Both guards and prisoner settled into their roles
2) Zimbardo prefered situational rather than dispositional in regards to prison violence = something in the environment brought out the violence
3) After 36 hours one prisoner was released due to stress and three more followed.
4) Only ran 6 days insstead of 2 weeks as Zimbardo had said it had went too far
5) Individuals will conform to social roles even if it over ride their morale codes
6) Rules are learnt from models of social roles = power, parents, teachers
7) Prisoners tried to rebel but this was stopped and guards became sadistic - humiliating the prisoner by making them doing meaningless physical tasks as a response prisoners became more submissive and called each other by their numbers rather than names
What was Zimbardo’s evaluation? (8)
1) Androcentric
2) Voluntary sample = reason for it to lead to a similar group of people
3) Not represnitive as all RPS were white middle class males and prisoners in real life aren’t chosen due to their mental stability
4) Individual differences played a part = not all guards were violent towards the prisoners
5) Research did bring about some prison reforms but there is still some evidence of prison violence still going on eg Abu -Grade dehumanising them
6) The sample was being paid may have been more prone to exaggerating and staying longer
7) Zimbardo acted as a RPS researcher = goes native and should have called it off earlier
8) Richer and Hasalm = recreated study with the BBC filming it and the prisoners took over and the prison failed leading for the experiment to be called off.
Burger’s contemporary variation? (4)
1) AIM = To investigate levels of obedience using adapted levels of Milgram
2) METHOD = Same words and lab coat
Max was 150 volts
Check sample had no prior knowledge of Milgram
Told RPS several times they could leave when they wanted and sample had 35 males and 35 females
3) FINDINGS = Obedience rate was 70%with no gender difference
4) EVALUATION = More ethical but the difference with methods can’t compare
Holfing et Al’s contemporary variation? (4)
1) AIM = To investigate if nurses would obey an unknown doctor when there is a genuine chance of risk
2) METHOD = Confederate Dr Jones instructed 22 nurses to give Mr Smith 20mg of a drug
The box clearly stated 10mg was the max
Hospital rules stated that they couldn’t do anything that was instructed over the phone
3) FINDINGS = 21 out of 22 obeyed without questions
Control group of 22 were asked what they would do and they all said they wouldn’t
4) EVALUATION = Unethical but has great ecological validity
Rank and Jackson recreated the study using valum and only 2 out of 18 obeyed suggesting it only happened because they didn’t know they drug
What ethical issues were present in the Milgram experiment? (4)
Deception and lack of informed consent
Psychological harm
Inducement to take part
Right to with drawl
How was deception and lack of informed consent involved? (4)
Used confederates
Didn’t shock confederates
No informed consent as true meaning of experiment was only shared after
Milgram says deception had to be used to obtain valid data
How was psychological harm involved? (3)
Only 2% regretted taking part
24% said they learnt something new about themselves
Milgram had asked a group of psychologists what they thought would happen and they said only 1% would obey
How was inducement to take part involved? (3)
On advert it said they’d be paid on arrival but weren’t
Pressured to continue by Mr Wallace
Some RPS thought they’d only get paid if they completed the experiment
How was right to with drawl involved? (2)
RPS weren’t told at the start
Were told during debrief and 35% with drew
Internal methodological issues? (2)
To what extent the findings are attributing to the IV
Owen and Holland = criticize the nature of the experiment may have meant that RPS guessed the real aim (demand characteristics) but would RPS hav had a big response if they didn’t believe it was real
External methodological issues? (5)
Androcentric
Might have been true in the 1960’s but now attitudes have changed
Cultural bias = 100% American, 92% Spanish, 27% Australian
To what extent can it be said that it is true to real life
Ecological Validity = foreign environment to most people when replicated in run down office block there was less obedience
