Zimbardo's research into conformity to social roles

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To investigate how freely people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that re-created prison life.

Question 2

Sample

Answer 2

A volunteer sample of 24 emotionally stable US male university students

Question 3

Strength

Answer 3

One strength of Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles is that it has high control over extraneous variables.
One example is the way in which ppts were selected. Researchers assessed the emotional stability of the ppts prior to the experiment, and randomly assigned them to the role of prisoner and guard.
If guards behaved very differently, and they were in those roles by chance, their behavior must be 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 difference.
This increases the internal; validity of Zimbardo’s research investigating conformity to social roles.

Question 4

Weakness (1)

Answer 4

Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles has gender bias, as Zimbardo used a male only sample (androcentric), this is a weakness as it is difficult to generalize the findings that people conform to their social roles to women.
It could be argued that 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.

Question 5

Weakness (2)

Answer 5

A further weakness of Zimbardo’s research is that there were major ethical issues. There was a lack of informed consent, as the prisoners did not consent to being arrested at their homes and were only told they were talking part in an experiment investigating prison life. Finally, the prisoners were not protected from harm as showed signs of psychological disturbance. Therefore, some may argue that this reduces the credibility of Zimbardo’s research investigating conformity to social roles.

Question 6

Criticism

Answer 6

One criticism of Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles is that it is prone to demand characteristics.
This is because withing his procedure, Zimbardo took on the role of the prison superintendent. Therefore, Zimbardo could have influenced how the ppts acted withing the study.
For example, they may have conformed to their role because this is what they believed Zimbardo wanted them to do (demand characteristics), rather than because they were actually conformity to their social role of prisoner o guard due to the prison environment. The fact the ppts were paid for taking part may have influenced this further. Therefore, lowering the internal validity of the research into conformity to social roles.

Question 7

Findings

Answer 7

Withing a day the prisoners rebelled and ripped off their numbers and the guards responded by locking them in their cells and confiscating their blankets.
As the experiment continued, the punishments by the guards escalated. Prisoners were humiliated and deprived of sleep by the guards conducting head counts.
Identification was noticeable by the prisoners referring to each other themselves by their prison numbers instead of their names.