Zimbardo’s research Flashcards
why did zimbardo carry out his research?
He wanted to know why prison guards behaved beautifully, if it was, because of that sadistic personality is all their social roles.
What was his study?
Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department in Stanford university to study, explain the effects of the situation of variables on participants reactions and behaviours
What was zimbardos hypothesis?
the rigid power structure of the prison environment, cause prisoners, and guards to behave in a hostile manner.The guards behaviour was extremely cruel, whereas the prisoners behaved and submissive Waze and became extremely dependent on the guards.
What did the findings of the study show?
It shows that the prison environment is responsible for causing the behaviour of guards and prisoners since random assignment was used for the study. The deposition of gods could not be used as an explanation for their quality, so the environmental difference in power must influence their behaviour.
ethical problems in Zimbardo experiment?
The study was extremely unethical prisoners were kept in unsafe and unsanitary,dehumanising facilities. Several of them told guards that they wanted to leave, but they were refused. The three men that were removed from the study, were only allowed to wouldn’t be such as thought they were too traumatised to continue in the study.
findings related to social roles
The guards took up their roles with enthusiasm treating prisoners harshly within two days, the prisoners without ripping their uniform, shouting and swearing at guards 
Conclusions related to social roles
Social roles appear to have strong influence on individuals behaviour. The gods became brutal, and the prisoners became submissive. 
What is a strength of his research?
One strength is that zimbardo and his colleagues had control over key variables. For example, the selection of participants were all emotionally, stable individuals who were given randomly assigned roles, prisoners or guards, so this ruled out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings. This degree of control over variables, increase the internal validity of the study, so we can be much more confident in his findings.
One limitation of ZimbardoS research
lack of realism
it could be argued that participants were play acting rather than genuinely conforming to a road as participants performances were based on the stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave. This suggests that the findings tell us a little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons .
another limitation?
another limitation is that Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour. For example, only one third of the guards actually behaved in a brutal manner the other third tried to apply the walls fairly.
