Zimbardo

• What did zimabardo want to examine?

  whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner
• what were the 2 factors he wanted to examine whether the behaviour in prison was due to them?

  dispositional and situational
• what is a dispositional factor?

  people and their personalities
• what is a situational factor?

  environment and condition
• what was the sample?

  • 24 male university students
  • volunteered in a response to newspaper ad
  • tested for emotional and psychological stability
  • randomly assigned to role by coin toss
• what was the procedure?

  • prisoners- arrested, stripped, given smocks to wear and number instead of name.
  • guards- uniform, dark sunglasses and told to keep order in prison and not to use physical violence
• what is deindividuation?

  loss of individual self awareness and personal responsibility when a part of a group
• what were the findings?

  • quickly identified with roles-prisoners rebelled
  • dehumanised prisoners (waking them at night and making them clean toilet with bare hands)
  • prisoners became more submissive as guards more aggressive
  • 3 prisoners left early due to extreme anxiety
  • study stopped after 6 days rather then 14
• what was the conclusion?

  • people quickly conform to social roles even when it goes against their moral principles (standards of right and wrong)
  • situational factors largely responsible
• evaluate individual differences?

  • individual differences and personality also determine the extent to which a person conforms to social roles
  • in zimbardos experiment, behaviour varied dramatically- from sadistic behaviour to few good guards.
  • dispositional factors also play a role
• evaluate ethical issues?

  • protection from harm
  • 3 prisoners leaving early due to extreme anxiety and some guards reported feeling guilty afterwards.
  • protection form harm includes both physical and psychology harm protection.
  • zimbardo debriefed participants and acknowledged that the study should have been stopped earlier
• evaluate control?

  • control over some variables
  • selection of participants- emotionally stable and randomly assigned by coin toss
  • ruled out individual personality differences as an explanation.
  • reduced researcher bias as well as increased internal validity- more confidence in drawing conclusions
• What are social roles

  The behaviour expected of an individual within a given group or setting