Zimbardo Stanford Prison Study

Question 1

what was Zimbardo examining?

Answer 1

how social roles affected individual behaviour - guards/ prisoners losing sense of individualisation

Question 2

3 phases of the experiment:

Answer 2

1) ‘settling in’ period. did not take roles seriously
2) Guards taking position of authority more seriously
3) Guards became galvanised - next 4 days guards became brutal.

(Experiment shut down after 6 days)

Question 3

what happened during SPE?

Answer 3

Human values were suspended, concepts were challenged .

Guards treated prisoners like animals and prisoners became dehumanised. Even Zimbardo was succumbed to his role.

Question 4

What does the study suggest?

Answer 4

Ordinary people can be transformed by their immediate context - to perform brutal acts

Question 5

Critique of SPE

Answer 5

The fact that Zimbardo did not intervene suggested to the guards that what they were doing was right.

‘normal’ participants?

Question 6

Were the participants actually ‘normal’?

Answer 6

those who agreed to take part were more authoritarian, narcissistic, machiavellian and socially dominant - less empathetic.

1/3 sadistic towards prisoners
1/3 kind
1/3 fair
recent recordings suggest some guards saw themselves as research assistants

Question 7

Loribond et al

Answer 7

Conducted a study in aus, under democratic, participatory or authoritarian conditions.
- in D & P conditions - guards were instructed to treat the prisoners w respect and include them in decision making. Prison regime became benign/ tolerant
- in A condition guards behaviour became toxic

Question 8

BBC prison Study

Answer 8

Examined behaviour of men assigned to prisoner and guard roles - 2 weeks. The researcher did not take any part in running the prison/ instructing guards. The guards disagreed amongst themselves of their roles.

Showed that people don’t automatically take on roles, they need to identify with them.

Question 9

Identifying with the roles…

Answer 9

People will only accept roles when they are incorporated in their sense of self.

Low Status group (prisoners): shared sense of identity can allow them to resist oppression rahter than to succumb to it
High Status Group (guards): a shared sense of identity can lead to brutality when promoted by a tyrannical leader = Zimbardo (he positioned himself as part of guard’s ingroup)

Question 10

what encouraged toxic behaviour?

Answer 10

The sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ combined with exhortations to control/ create fear.

Question 11

conclusion of SPE

4 points

Answer 11

• Certain people may be attracted to certain contexts and once there - drawn to certain kinds of activities
• There is an interaction between person and context that leads to tyranny ands resistance. this interaction is dynamic…
• Context’s transform individuals and individuals’ transform through their capacity to represent, lead and mobilise people

People have the capacity to support tyranny or resist it.