zimbardo: conformity to social roles

Question 1

What is a social role?
Examples?

Answer 1

Pattern of behaviour that is expected of personals who occupy a certain social position e.g. doctor (smart), teacher (caring), officer (tough)

Question 2

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 2

Investigate the extent to which people would conform to the roles of a guard and prisoner in a role-playing situation of real life

Question 3

Outline the sample and procedure of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 3

24 male American students volunteered to be in a 7-14 day study
Ppts were randomly allocated assigned prisoner or guard role
Prisoners were arrested at home, given uniforms and places in a small mock prison cell in the Stanford university basement
Guards were given uniform, alongside clubs, whistles, worked in teams of 3 instructed to manage prisoners without harming them
ZImbardo over saw the experiment by playing the ‘chief and lead investigator’

Question 4

What did Zimbardo’s study find?

Answer 4

Ppts lost their personal identities and adapted to their assigned social roles
Prisoners initially resisted, then showed high levels of stress and anxiety, some released early because of emotional breakdowns
Guards were empowered by their uniforms>aggressive

Question 5

One strength of ZImbardo’s study is that it was initially well controlled
PET

Answer 5

E: did psychological screening to ensure all ppts were stable, roles were randomly allocated
T: control supports the argument that behaviour shown in study resulted from the social roles and prison environment, rather than individual dispositions

Question 6

One weakness of Zimbardo’s study is ppts experienced a lot of psychological harm
PET

Answer 6

E: Zimbardo’s decision to continue the experiment, despite signs of emotional breakdown and extreme reactions from both guards and prisoners shows that strict ethical controls were needed
T: Long lasting impact on individual

Question 7

One weakness of Zimbardo’s study is of Zimbardo’s role as principal investigator
PET

Answer 7

E: his involvement may have led to experimenter bias, his presence influencing the ppts behaviour to fit the expected outcomes of the study>demand characteristics
T: lacks validity