Zimbardos Social Roles

Question 1

What are social roles

Answer 1

The parts that people play in various social groups which often come with expectations of how you should act and can change depending on the social situation

Question 2

Aims

Answer 2

To see if people do bad things because of their personality or because it was their social role

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

-21 male American volunteers
-$15 a day
-Randomly assigned to the role of guard or prisoner
-Prisoners made to wear smocks and caps to cover their hair as well as being identified via numbers created de-individuation (loss of identity)
-Prisoners spent 23 hours a day in their cell
- Guards were given uniforms with clubs, handcuffs and mirror shades to hide their eyes
-PP were encouraged to conform to social roles through uniforms and instructions

Question 4

Findings

Answer 4

Day 2 - prisoners rebelled by ripping uniforms and swearing at guards and then guards retaliating with fire extinguishers
-guards continuously harassed prisoners by doing late night head counts and putting them against each other, subduing the prisoners and causing them to become depressed and anxious. One prisoner was released due to psychological disturbance
Day 4 - 2 more prisoners are released and a prisoner goes on hunger strike, guards try to force feed him and then he’s put in a cupboard as punishment
Day 6 - Guards behaviour became worryingly violent and the experiment was shut down 8 day early

Question 5

Conclusions

Answer 5

Social roles have a strong influence on a person’s behaviour. Guards became brutal and prisoners submissive

Question 6

AO3 neg

Answer 6

-Lack of research support
-BBC replication, the prisoners rebelled against their social roles and rioted the prison
-Explained via social identity theory as the guards failed to develop a shared identity but prisoners did
-decrease IV

Question 7

AO3 neg

Answer 7

-dispositional factors
-Zimbardo exaggerated his findings and disclosed dispositional factors (personality)
-1/3 of the guards were brutal but the rest tried to help the prisoners
-This suggests his conclusions were overstated
-decreasing EV

Question 8

AO3 pos

Answer 8

-Lack of demand characteristics
-After a day or two in the prison, prisoners ceased to talk about life outside of the prison suggesting that they believed that the situation was real, decreasing demand characteristics
-increasing IV