3. Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo's research

• What is a social role?


  the parts people play as members of social groups, which meet the expectations of that situation
• What completed research into conformity to social roles?


  Zimbardo
• What was the procedure of Zimbardo's study?


  1. took place in simulated prison environment in basement of Stanford university
  2. pps randomly assigned role of guard or prisoner
  3. guards issues khaki uniform/mirrored glasses/Billy club/whistle
  4. instructed to do whatever they thought necessary to maintain order without physical violence
  5. prisoners arrested at home/blindfolded/in mocks/stripped
  6. Zimbardo acted as superintendent whilst observing behaviour
• What were the findings of Zimbardo's study?


  • 90% of recorded conversation was about prison life
  • guards appeared to enjoy domination/humiliation
  • prisoners rebelled within 2 days
  • 1 prisoner was released after a day and 2 on fourth day for psychological disturbance
• What was the conclusion of Zimbardo's study?


  • situation had huge influence on peoples behaviour
  • social roles adopted easily
• What are the strengths of Zimbardo's study?


  • real world application for penal system - useful in prison reform
  • high internal validity - control of extraneous variables - all psychologically tested beforehand
• What are the weaknesses of Zimbardo's study?


  • Richer and Haslam - argued experimenter intervened - respond to demand characteristics
  • low ecological validity/mundane realism - artificial environment - respond to demand characteristics
  • lacks generalisability - authoritarian/less empathetic people volunteer for study - individual differences