Zimbardo

• Zimbardo’s aim was to see if people would conform to social roles and what happens when you put a good person in a bad environment.
• 1. Zimbardo used volunteer sampling to get 24 male participants then did random sampling to give 12 participants the role of guard and the other 12 the role of prisoner.
• 2. The guards were called in the set up and design the mock prison
• 3. The prisoners were arrested and taken to the mock prison, blind folded and strip searched.
• 4. The prisoners were stuck to a daily routine and guards were out on shifts
• 5. The prisoners were dehumanised and called by numbers not names and the guards were deindividuated by called by only last names.
• Zimbardo became too involved with the experiment and left it too long before finishing the observation as 5 prisoners were released within the first 36 hours due to mental breakdowns
• The observation was supposed to be 2 weeks long however it was shortened to 6 days due to psychological issues
• Zimbardo’s study caused both physical and psychological harm to the prisoners as they were tortured and mentallly abused
• Only 1/4 of the guards were abusive
• Zimbardo’s observation has good external validity due to the Nazi regime and Abu Grahib.
• The observation lacks mundane realism as it was filmed meaning the participants could be “acting up” for the camera.
• It has high internal validity as it was in a controlled situation.
• Zimbardo had no informed consent within the observation as they did not know about getting arrested.
• Examples of abuse:

  • Sexually assaulted
  • Shouted at and called “bastards”
  • Continuous press ups
  • Picking nettles out of bed sheets
  • Clean toilets with bare hands
• Zimbardo’s study was an observation not an experiment