Zimbardo's SPE

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

1n 1973 Zimbardo wanted to investigate how people would conform to social roles of guard and a prisoner

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

He converted the basement of Stanford university’s psych building into a prison mock ward.
He advertised for students to play the roles for 2 weeks.
PRISONERS- were issued uniforms
- heads were shaved
- addressed by their numbers only
- fingerprinted, photographed and stripped.
GUARDS- wore khaki uniforms.
- sunglasses to avoid eye contact
-and no physical violence was allowed.

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

Zimbardo found that the participants adopted their roles quickly.
prisoners adopted prison-like behaviour. e.g. snitching on other prisoners to please guards.
guards became brutal and violent by harming prisoners in aggressive ways but they later reported they enjoyed doing so because they were in power.
due to this the experiment only lasted for 6 days because Zimbardo realised what he was doing was wrong.

Question 4

Strengths

Answer 4

Control. Zimbardo and his colleagues had control over key variables. The most obvious exam[le was the participants were emotionally stable and randomly assigned to the roles guard and prisoner. This is one way how they ruled out individual differences as an explanation for findings. If guards and prisoners behaved differently , but were in those roles only by chance, then their behaviour must have been due to the role its self.

Question 5

Weaknesses

Answer 5

Lack of realism.
It didn’t have the realism of a true prison. Banuazizi and mohavedi argue that the ppts were merely play-acting rather that conforming to a role. ppts performances were based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave. e.g. one of the guards claimed he has based his role on a brutal character from the film “cool hand luke” This would also explain why the prisoners rioted.
SUGGESTS THAT THE FINDINGS OF THE SPE TELL US LITTLE ABOUT CONFORMITY TO SOCIAL ROLES IN REAL PRISONS.

Question 6

Weaknesses

Answer 6

Ethical issues
PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM Participants were not protected from stress,
anxiety, emotional distress and embarrassment e.g. one prisoner had
to be released due to excess distress and uncontrollable screaming
and crying. One prisoner was released on the first day due to showing signs of psychological disturbance, with a further two being released on the next day. This study would be deemed unacceptable
according to modern ethical standards.

Question 7

Strengths

Answer 7

Debriefing – participants were fully and completely debriefed about
the aims and results of the study. This is particularly important when
considering that the BPS ethical guidelines of deception and
informed consent had been breached. Dealing with ethical issues in
this way simply makes the study more ethically acceptable, but does
not change the quality (in terms of validity and reliability) of the
findings.