zimbardo

• What was the aim of Zimbardo's study?


  Investigate if brutality in prison environments is a result of situational or dispositional factors
• What was the method used in Zimbardo's?


  Roles are randomly assigned. Prisoners are arrested at home, taken to the station, stripped, deloused and ID numbers to be referred to while guards are given batons, uniforms, and reflective glasses. Imitation of the prison setting
• How many participants took part in Zimbardo's study?


  21 white male university student volunteers
• What were the results of Zimbardo's study?


  Participants immediately began conforming to social roles

  Guards establish authority through mockery, punishment/reward system, and forcing prisoners to perform menial tasks

  Prisoners rebel at first by refusing to leave cells however quickly conform and start to show signs of emotional distress.

  Prisoner released planned to liberate but never went through with it

  Roles based on what was 'expected' of them such as 'John Wayne' imitation

  Ended after 6 days rather than 14 days

  Participants were interviewed before their release
• What is the conclusion of Zimbardo's study?

  Deindividuation - becoming so immersed in the norms of the group there is a loss of sense of identity and personal responsibility

  Learned helplessness

  People will readily conform to social roles they are expected to play - especially if they have strong stereotypes
• Outline Reicher and Hansalm's replication of Zimbardo's study


  Prisoners formed a community that rebelled causing stress for the guards who could not control the situation. Well-behaved prisoners were offered a promotion to guards so conformed however when no one was promoted they began to rebel again. The system and commune collapsed

  Results showed a significant increase in stress and depression in guards while prisoners leadership increased

  Contradicts theory that people conform to social roles
• Was the generalisability of Zimbardo's study a strength or weakness and why?

  Weakness - androcentric and ethnocentric so not generalisable to society

  - uses volunteer sampling contributes towards an artificial situation where demand characteristics may affect results
• Was the reliability of Zimbardo's study a strength or weakness and why?


  Weakness - not easily replicable so not credible (Reicher and Hanslams replication showed contrasting results)

  However, it had many control variables such as psychological screening in participants to remove dispositional factors
• Was the applicability of Zimbardo's study a strength or weakness and why?

  Strength - applied in prisons for reforms, higher level of training for guards, and mental health support
• Was the internal validity of Zimbardo's study a strength or weakness and why?


  Strength - limited confounding variables such as removing dispositional factors through psychological testing and demonstrated how people conform to what they expect of a social role

  However, affected by demand characteristics such as the Hawthorne effect as Zimbardo played the role of prison superintendent
• Was the external validity of Zimbardos study a strength or weakness and why?


  Weakness - High ecological validity as replicates a real prison environment

  - Low temporal validity due to updated ethical implications and social sensitivity that prevent aggressive behaviour in prison as well as replicating psychological experiments with these regulations
• Was the ethics of Zimbardo's study a strength or weakness and why?

  Weakness - Prisoners dehumanised due to being identified by ID numbers as well as being stripped and deloused. Felt they had no right to withdraw as when the prisoner asked to leave he was attempted to be bribed to stay and be an informant leading to emotional distress

  Could have been avoided by making the right to withdraw clearer and by not letting Zimbardo have a role in the prison

  However, can be argued that the rawness of the experiment replicated realistic prisoner's environments
• Was Zimbardo's study objective or subjective and why?


  Subjective - due to researcher bias and subjectivity of quantitative data
• What year did Zimbardo's study take place?


  1971