conformity to social roles

• define social roles?

  • the part people play as members of a social group
  • with each social role you adopt your behaviour changes to fit expectations both you & others have to fit that role
• zimbardos standford prison experiment 1973?

  • controlled paricipant observation
  • zimbardo observed behaviour of prisoners/guards by acting as prison warden
• aim of zimbardos study?

  • to investigate whether people would conform to social roles of prisoners/guards when placed in mock prison environment
• method of zimbardos study?

  • participants volunteered in response to newspaper ad
  • were selected on basis of their physical & mental stability & if been to prison before
  • randomly assigned prisoner/guard role
  • zimbardo took on role of superintendent of prison
  • he observed & recorded behaviour of all participants in controlled observation
• procedure of zimbardos study?

  • basement of standford uni turned into mock prison
  • prisoners were arrested by real local police & fingerprinted, stripped - wore numbered smock
  • guards wore uniforms & dark reflective sunglasses, handcuffs & truncheon
  • instructed to keep order at all costs & to run prison without using physical violence
  • experiment set to run for 2 weeks
• results of zimbardos study?

  • both prisoners & guards quickly identified with social roles
  • guards became increasingly aggressive
  • dehumanised prisoners - waking them up during night & forcing them to clean toilets with bare hands
  • prisoners initially rebelled, became increasingly submissive - identifying with subordinate role
  • 5 prisoners released early due to adverse reactions to physical & mental torment - crying & extreme anxiety
  • only lasted 6 days - conditions were inhumane
• conclusion for zimbardos study?

  • people quickly conform to social roles even when role goes against moral principles
  • behaviour is influenced by loss of identity
  • situational factors largely responsible for behaviour found
  • as none of these participants had ever displayed these behaviours previously
• 3 X of research into conformity of social roles?

  1. breaks ethical guidelines
  2. influenced by investigator effects
  3. low reliability
• * explains events in real life?

  • during iraq war some of US army committed series of human right violations against prisoners of war - carrying out violent & abusive acts on them
  • untrained guards who had no history of violence were put in bad situation led to bad series of events
  • means soldiers conformed to roles & maintained order in prison by any means even when going against own morals
  • ecological
  • events at abu ghraib support zimbardos original findings
  • shows people do conform to social roles in real life situations
• X influenced by investigator effects?

  • newly analysed recordings shows zimbardo acting as superintendent was heavily influencing guards to act as "tough guards"
  • e.g becoming increasingly aggressive
  • dehumanised prisoners meaning their behaviour may be unnatural
  • ? valid
  • findings may not reflect natural behaviour in conformity to social roles as presence of zimbardo caused behaviour to differ
• X low reliabilty?

  • replication of zimbardos study in early 2000s conducted by reicher & haslam
  • found that guards did not identify with their status & refused to impose their authority
  • prisoners identified as group to challenge guards authority
  • resulted in shift of power & collase of prison system
  • results contradict findings of zimbardos & suggests conformity to social roles may not be automatic as zimbardo originally implied
• X breaks ethical guidelines?

  • p put in situation that caused great deal of physical & psychological stress
  • guards became increasingly aggressive
  • 5 prisoners released early due to crying & extreme anxiety
  • only lasted 6 days instead of 14 - conditions were inhumane
  • means that both prisoners & guards left study in different state to that they arrived in - caused harm
  • ? credible
  • did not protect p thus breaking bps ethical guidelines
  • may impact integrity of research as there are more ethical ways to test how social roles affect levels of conformity
  • uethical procedures means its difficult to repeat
• sample of zimbardos study?

  24 male uni students