Zimbardo (1973) - A03

Question 1

What is a strength of Zimbardo’s (1973) study?

Answer 1

• P: Strength = control of variable
• E: Dispositonal variable controlled by assessing for mental stability, so must have been environment that caused conformity
• E: PPs also randomly assigned to roles - low chance all guards were violent
• L: This means that Zimbardo’s research hadhigh internal validity, making the results more trustworthy

Question 2

What are 2 limitations of Zimbardo’s (1973) study?

Answer 2

• P: Limitation = ethical issues
• E: PPs not protected from psychological harm - several PPs had to leave early
• E: Zimbardo himself acknowledged the** experiment should have been stopped earlier** as many PPs were suffereing distress
• L: Therefore… Zimabrdo’s research cannot be replicated with today’s ethical guidlines - lack of reliability
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• P: Limitation = lack of external validity
• E: Banuazizi and Movahedi (1975) argued that PPs were just play-acting, and not actually conforming to a role
• E: Could never ethically, practically or legally recreate a fully accurate prison environment
• L: This means that Zimbardo’s research may tell us a little about conformity in real prisons

Question 3

What is a limitation of Zimbardo’s (1973) study?
EVALUATION EXTRA

Answer 3

• P: Limitation = exaggerated the power of social roles
• E: Fromm (1973) reported that only a minority of the guards were actually violent - only a third (three people)
• E: Most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a social role
• L: This suggests that Zimbardo’s conclusion that situational factors lead to conformity may have been overstated and inaccurate