Zimbardo Social Roles And Conformity

Question 1

What was his method during this experiment

Answer 1

• mock prison in basement
• 21 physically and mentally fit people were selected
• randomly split into prisoner and guard
• prisoners were originally arrested by a mock police man

Question 2

What were his findings

Answer 2

• both groups conformed to social roles
• prisoner initially rebelled
• guards became more sadistic
• eventually prisoners became more and more submissive and unquestioning
• after 36 hours 1 prisoner was released as more and more broke down
• the experiment was stopped after 6 days

Question 3

What can we conclude from his experiment

Answer 3

People were led into social roles within the situation as they were not submissive or sadistic before the experiment

Question 4

Evaluation 1

Answer 4

Individual differences- some guards were more sadistic than others, 1/3 of guards didn’t try to control prisoners and were sympathetic. Therefore personality was more important.

Question 5

Evaluation 2

Answer 5

Banuazizi and Mohavedi- participants didn’t really conform, they just play acted to what they had seen in movies. Demand characteristics

Question 6

Evaluation 3

Answer 6

Ecological validity - prisoners and guards reported high amounts of realism, therefore it has real life application

Question 7

Evaluation 4

Answer 7

Ethics- protection from harm, Zimbardo ignored a prisoner when he came for help. Also, the right to withdraw was not made clear during the experiment

Question 8

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 8

To see whether people would conform to the social roles of prisoner or guard