Zimbardo's research Flashcards
Conformity to social roles definition
Social roles are the roles that people play as members of their social groups e.g. teachers and students. These come from expectations that society has of what is appropriate behaviour in each role. We internalise these expectations, so they shape our behaviour.
AIM
To investigate how freely people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that re-created prison life.
SAMPLE
A volunteer sample of 24 ’emotionally stable’ (determined by psychological testing prior to the study) US
male university students
what gender was the sample
male
what culture was the sample
US
METHOD
Controlled participant observation
PROCEDURE - Prisoners
The volunteers were randomly allocated each student to the role of prisoner or guard
Arrested at their homes,
dressed in smock uniforms.
They were referred to as a number rather than by name
These uniforms created a loss of personal identity, encouraging participants to conform to
their social role.
Prisoners were placed in cells
PROCEDURE - Guards
Given uniforms,
given mirrored glasses.
They were instructed to keep the prisoners under
control but to use no physical violence.
These uniforms created a loss of personal identity encouraging participants to conform to
their social role
Purpose of the uniforms
These uniforms created a loss of personal identity encouraging participants to conform to
their social role
PROCEDURE - Environemnt
The basement of the psychology department at Stanford University was converted into a mock prison.
Prisoners were placed in cells and a regular routine of shifts, mealtimes
FINDINGS:
Within a day the prisoners rebelled
As the experiment continued, the punishments by the guards escalated. Prisoners were deprived of sleep by the guards
Identification was noticeable by the prisoners referring to each other and themselves by their prison numbers
instead of their names.
The prisoners rapidly became depressed, with some showing serious stress-related symptoms.
Five prisoners were released early due to showing symptoms of psychological distress.
The role play had been intended to run for two weeks but was called off after just six days.
The role play had been intended to run for two weeks but was called off after ?
six days.
CONCLUSIONS:
Guards, prisoners and researchers conformed to their role within the prison.
Social roles have an extraordinary power over individuals, making even the most well-adjusted capable of
extreme brutality towards others.
One strength of Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles?
high control over extraneous variables.
One example is the way in which the participants were selected.
Researchers assessed the emotional stability of the participants prior to the experiment, and randomly assigned them to the role of prisoner and guard.
If guards and prisoners behaved very differently, and they were in those roles by chance, their behaviour must have been due to the role itself.
This allowed Zimbardo to accurately measure the power of social roles on levels of conformity, rather than it being affected by individual personality differences.
One weakness of his research
gender bias
explanation of why gender bias
it is difficult to generalise the findings that people conform to their social roles to women.
It could be argued that as the role of guard was a violent one, females would not conform as much due to stereotypically being more caring and concerned for others.
Thus, reducing the external validity of the research into conformity to social roles.
A second weakness
ethical issues
lack of informed consent, as the prisoners did not consent to being arrested at their homes and were only told
they were taking part in an experiment investigating prison life.
Finally, the prisoners were not protected from harm as some showed signs of psychological disturbance.
Therefore, some critics may argue that despite the benefits of understanding conformity to social roles the breaking of such ethical guidelines means it shouldn’t have been conducted in the first place.
