conformity to social roles-zimbardo

• what are social roles?

  the 'parts' people play as members of various social groups
• what are examples of social groups?

  parents, students, neighbours
• what is the study that demonstrates conformity to social roles?

  Zimbardo's stanford prison experiment
• what is zimbardo's method for his experiment?

  set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at stanford

  • advertised for male, american college students (volunteer sample)
  • students roles were randomly assigned
  • social roles were strictly divided
  • prisoners referred to as a number
  • guards were given a uniform including mirrored shades
• what did zimbardo find?

  the guards behaviour became a threat to the prisoners psychological and physical health

  • the study was stopped after 6 days instead of the intended 14
  • prisoners rebelled.
  • guards harassed prisoners constantly and monitored them
  • after rebellion was put down, prisoners became depressed and anxious
  • conformed to their roles
• what did zimbardo conclude?

  the study revealed the power of the situation to influence people's behaviour, all conformed to their roles within the prison
• what are the control over variables in zimbardo's experiment?

  emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned. Researchers tried to rule out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings.
• how is the control over variable a strength of zimbardo's experiment?

  increases the internal validity of the study
• what is the role of dispositional influences in zimbardo's experiment?

  a third of the guards behaved in a brutal manner and some tried to actively support the prisoners
• how is the role of dispositional influences a weakness in zimbardo's experiment?

  zimbardo's conclusion - that participants were conforming to social roles, may be over-stated
• what is a counter comment for the role of dispositional influences in zimbardo's experiment?

  unethical - prisoners were victims of aggressive treatment both physically and psychologically, damages the reputation of psychology
• how does zimbardo's experiment lack population validity?

  zimbardo used a sample of american, male college students
• how is lack of population validity a weakness in zimbardo's experiment?

  we must be cautious when generalising these findings of conforming to social roles