SOCIAL ROLES

• conformity to social roles was investigated by

  Zimbardo
• what is a social role

  parts people play as a member of a social group
• aim of Zimbardo study (1973)

  investigate whether prison guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities or whether it is the situation they are in that creates the behaviour
• pps for Zimbardo's study

  • 24 male university students
  • responded to an advert saying a two week study of 'prison life'
  • natural experiment
• zimbardo's procedure

  1. he set up a 'mock prison' in the basement of stanford uni
  2. the final volunteers were deemed 'emotionally stable'
  3. pps were randomly assigned to 2 groups
• the prisoners in Zimbardo experiment

  • pps were 'arrested' by real police from their homes
  • blindfolded, strip-searched, deloused
  • given a prison uniform with their number on it
  • had 16 rules they had to follow
• the guards in Zimabrdo experiment

  • worked in shifts of 3
  • had their own uniform (mirrored glasses, handcuffs, clubs)
  • they had complete power over prisoners
  • called prisoners by their numbers
• findings of Zimbardo experiment (the rebellion)

  1. in 2 days the prisoners rebelled and got punished by the fire extinguisher and the 'divide and rule'
  2. guards harassed prisoners which highlighted the difference in social roles as they came up with ways to enforce the rules and punish those who don't follow
• findings in Zimbardo experiment (after rebellion)

  1. once rebellion had failed, prisoners felt depressed, 1 prisoner was released at 36 hours and another 2 on day 4
  2. a prisoner went on 'hunger strike' but was put in the 'hole' and was shunned rather than be a hero
  3. 3. guards identified more closely with their roles and became more brutal and aggressive, some appeared to enjoy the power
• conclusions of zimbardo experiment

  1. revealed the power of the situation to influence people's behaviour
  2. guards, prisoners and zimbardo all conformed to their roles
  3. roles were taken on very easily
  4. everyone found themselves acting like it was a prison and not a psychological study
  5. even zimbardo went native and didn't see any problems
• 1. a limitation of zimbardo research is the lack of realism

  • Banuazizi + Mohavedi argued that pps were merely play acting rather than genuinely conforming to the role
  • their performances were based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are meant to act
  • based on character from 'cool hand luke'
• 2. (limit of zimbardo lack of realism) this is a problem as

  • the pps behaviour may not have been their natural behaviour
  • they may have acted in response to demand characteristics
  • students who had never seen the study predicted how they would act
  • standford students could have had done the same
• 3. (limit of zimbardo lack of realism) however zimbardo provided evidence that

  • the situation was real to the pps
  • 90% of the prisoner's conversations were about prison life
  • prisoner 416 expressed the view that the prison was a real one but run by psychologists instead of government
• 4. (limit of zimbardo lack of realism) therefore it can be argued that

  • whilst people were not involved in the research they may have been able to guess the purpose of the study
  • the actual pps found the situation real
  • high degree of internal validity
• 1. (limitation of zimbardo fails to consider dispositional factors)

  • Fromm accused zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour and minimising the role of personality factors
• 2. (limitation of zimbardo fails to consider dispositional factors)this is a problem as

  • it reduces the pp responsibility for their actions by saying their behaviour is solely determined by the situation they are in
• 3. (limitation of zimbardo fails to consider dispositional factors)the criticism is supported by evidence

  • the study shows that a third of the guards behaved in a brutal way
  • another third wanted to enforce rules fairly
  • the last third were sympathetic
• 4. (limitation of zimbardo fails to consider dispositional factors)this suggests that 


  • zimbardo's conclusion that pps were conforming to social roles may be over-stated
  • variances between guards' behaviour shows that they can exercise right and wrong
  • despite the pressure to conform by them being in the situation
• 1. (limit of zimbardo unethical)

  • many of the pps were exposed to psychological harm
  • zimbardo acknowledges that the study should have been cut short
• 2. (limit of zimbardo unethical)this is a problem as 


  • it means that the research was carried in a manner that put pps at a risk
  • as psychologists they should have made sure that all pps were return to normal lives unaffected
• 3. (limit of zimbardo unethical)this was counteracted by 


  • zimbardo carried out debriefing sessions for several years
  • there was no longer lasting negative effects
• 4. (limit of zimbardo unethical)could be considered ethical 


  • it followed the ethical guidelines of the uni's ethics committee
  • there was no deception as all pps were told in advance that many of their usual rights may be suspended