Zimbardo's Prison Study Flashcards
How many people took part in the study, and what category were they split into?
-24 males
-12 guards and 12 prisoners
How long was the study meant to go on for, and how long did it?
It was meant to last for 2 weeks but it was shut down after 6 days.
How much were the participants payed?
$15 per day.
What happened to the participants before they were assigned a role?
They were all tested to make sure they were psychologically stable to ensure that the results were as valid as possible.
How many participants were released early due to psychological trauma.
3 participants were released in the first 5 days.
What happened on day 2 and what followed?
The prisoners rebelled against the guards, however the guards managed to control it. the guards became more aggressive:
-Forcing prisoners to clean toilets with their bare hands.
-Removing all privacy and basic luxuries like matrasses.
-Sleep depriving the prisoners.
What happened to the prisoners after the rebellion?
They became more submissive and hopeless.
Some displayed sever anxiety and obvious signs of sever distress.
How were the prisoners taken into the experiment?
They were arrested by real policemen. They were stripped, deloused and then given a number instead of a name, the transported to the fake cells.
Evaluate Zimbardo’s Study.
-Over exaggerated results.
Reported that everyone had been inhumane when only 4 out of the 12 guards were actually that inhumane.
-Great deal of variation in response.
All participants were male, same age, same geographical area etc, so there was low population validity and can’t be generalised to everyone.
-Lacks temporal validity.
It can’t be generalised to other time periods. It can’t be replicated now because ethical guidelines have been introduced.
+Strength, led to the introduction of ethical guidelines.
