Conforming to Social Roles AO3

• What is a weakness of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) regarding conformity to social roles?


  Conformity to roles is not automatic as Zimbardo believed.
• What did Reicher and Haslam’s study find about participants and their assigned roles?

  Participants did not conform automatically to their assigned role.
• How did the guards in Reicher and Haslam’s study behave towards their assigned roles?

  The guards failed to identify with their role, making them reluctant to impose authority on the prisoners.
• Why is Zimbardo's conclusion about the guards' behavior considered questionable?

  Zimbardo concluded that the guards' sadistic behavior was an automatic consequence of embracing their role.
• What alternative perspective does other research suggest about the guards' behavior in the SPE?

  Other research suggested that the guards chose how to behave rather than blindly conforming to their social role.
• What conclusion can be drawn about conformity to social roles based on the discussed studies?

  Conformity is not automatic as Zimbardo thought.
• What is a weakness of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE)?

  Participants may have guessed the aim and acted in a way they were expected to act.
• What did Banuazizi and Movahedi do to assess the SPE's experimental procedure?

  They presented details of the SPE to a large sample of students who had never heard of the study.
• What did the majority of students predict about the behavior of guards and prisoners in the SPE?

  They predicted that guards would act in a hostile, domineering way and prisoners would be passive.
• Why is it significant that the behavior of Zimbardo’s guards and prisoners may not be due to the prison environment?

  It suggests their behavior could be a response to powerful demand characteristics.
• How does the presence of demand characteristics affect the internal validity of the SPE findings?

  It means that the behaviors observed were not true behaviors, affecting the internal validity.
• What is a weakness of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE)?

  It may be seen as unethical
• Why was Zimbardo's study considered ethical at the time?

  It followed the guidelines of the Stanford University ethics committee
• What aspects of Zimbardo's study were later found to be unethical?

  Participants endured great emotional distress and degrading tasks
• What did Zimbardo acknowledge about the timing of the study?

  He acknowledged that the study should have been stopped earlier
• What were some degrading tasks that prisoners were asked to do in the study?

  Push-ups and cleaning toilets with their hands
• What ethical issues were raised in the Stanford Prison Experiment?

  Right to withdraw and protection from harm
• What conclusion can be drawn about the ethical implications of the study?

  The study was seen as unethical and the costs may have outweighed the benefits
• What did post-study interviews reveal about the long-term effects on participants?

  There were no long-term effects and many prisoners were glad they took part
• What was the general sentiment of many prisoners regarding their participation in the study?

  Many were glad they took part