Social roles

• What is the name of the famous psychology study conducted by Zimbardo?

  Stanford Prison Experiment
• What was the main focus of Zimbardo's Prison Experiment?

  Investigating causes of prison violence
• How did Zimbardo assign roles in the experiment?

  Randomly assigned participants to roles
• What behavior did Zimbardo observe in the prison officers during the experiment?

  They became dominant and aggressive
• How did the prisoners initially react to their situation?

  They attempted to resist and barricade themselves
• What happened to some prisoners during the experiment?

  They experienced mental breakdowns
• Why did Zimbardo end the study early?

  Due to extreme distress of participants
• What did Zimbardo claim about the situational power of the prison environment?

  It led to aggressive behaviors in individuals
• What are social roles?

  • Socially defined patterns of behavior
  • Expected from individuals in specific positions
• How does identification type of conformity relate to social roles?

  People adopt behaviors to feel part of a group
• What was a key feature of the participants' selection process?

  Psychological testing for mental ability
• What did the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment suggest about social roles?

  They can lead to loss of individual identity
• What are the positive evaluations of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Careful selection of participants
  • Random assignment to roles
  • Findings applied to real-life institutional abuse
• What ethical concerns are associated with the Stanford Prison Experiment?

  Participants suffered significant harm
• What did the BBC documentary by Reicher and Haslam find about conformity to social roles?

  Participants acted according to their personalities
• What are demand characteristics in the context of the experiment?

  Participants acted according to perceived expectations