Zimbardo's research

Question 1

How were participants gathered and assigned to their role?

Answer 1

• advertised for students to volunteer in a newspaper
• volunteers were psychologically tested and those deemed emotionally stable were selected.
• They were randomly assigned the role of either guard or prisoner.

Question 2

Explain the procedure of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 2

• ‘prisoners’ were arrested from their homes by local police and taken to the ‘prison’.
• After being blindfolded, strip-searched and deloused they were issued a uniform and a number which replaced their names.
• the ‘guards’ worked in shifts, three at a time, to enforce 16 rules.
• The ‘guards’ also had a uniform and had complete control over the ‘prisoners’.

Question 3

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 3

Day 2 - ‘prisoners’ rebelled, shouting, swearing and ripping the ‘guards’ uniform, who retaliated with fire-extinguishers.
The guards conducted frequent head counts were ‘prisoners’ had to stand in line and say their numbers, even in the middle of the night.
After the rebellion, prisoners became subdued, anxious and depressed and the ‘guards’ became more brutal and aggressive.
A ‘prisoner’ went on a hunger strike and was punished by being put into ‘the hole’, a tiny dark closet. he was then shunned by other ‘prisoners’.
Due to the ‘guards’ behaviour becoming a threat to the ‘prisoners’ psychological and physical health, the study was stopped after 6 days rather than the intended 14.

Question 4

Evaluation - internal validity

Answer 4

• the effects of individual differences were reduced by allocating participants randomly to their roles.
• If guards and prisoners behaved very differently it must have been due to their situation as they were only in their role by chance.
• high internal validity

Question 5

Evaluation - lack of realism

Answer 5

• participants may have been acting based upon stereotypes of their role, rather than genuinely conforming.
• e.g. a ‘guard’ claimed he based his role upon a brutal character from a film.
• ‘prisoners’ may have rioted because that’s what they thought prisoners did.
  however. …
• Zimbardo found evidence suggesting the situation was real to the participants.
• 90% of ‘prisoners’ conversations were about prison life.
• One ‘prisoner’ expressed the view that the prison was real but run by psychologists rather than the govermwent.

Question 6

Evaluation - exageration

Answer 6

• Zimbardo may have minimised the role of dispositional factors (personality) and exaggerated the power of the situation to influence behaviour.
• only about 1/3 of the ‘guards’ behaved brutally.
• 1/3 of the ‘guards’ were keen to apply rules fairly.
• the final 1/3 even tried to support the ‘prisoners’ by offering them cigarettes, sympathising with them and reinstating privileges.
• This suggests that the conclusion that participants conformed to their social roles was overstated.

Question 7

evaluation - ethics

Answer 7

• Zimbardo’s duel role in the study meant that when a participant asked to leave he responded as a superintendent worried about the running of his prison rather than as a researcher with responsibilities to his participants.