conformity to SR

• what does conformity to social roles means?

  • when an individual adopts a particular behaviour and belief while in a particular social situation.
  • this type of conformity represents identification.
  • people learn how to behave in certain situations by observing the social roles of others and conforming to this behaviour.
• what does social roles mean?

  • how somebody is expected to behave in a certain way when they are in a particular position.
• Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment (1973):

  • AIM: to investigate how regular, healthy people would conform to social roles.
  • METHOD: 21 male university students volunteered to take part via a newspaper ad for $15 a day. Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University and randomly assigned participants to the role of either prisoner or guard.
  • RESULTS: found that the guards and prisoners quickly identified with their roles. prisoners rebelled but then were dehumanised by the guards. prisoners became submissive. 5 of them were released early.
• strengths of the experiment (AO3):

  • provided real-world applications to improve the US prison system.
• limitations of the experiment (AO3):

  • broke ethical guidelines - (protection from harm), 5 of the prisoners left the experiment early due to mental and physical torment and several of the guards reported feelings of anxiety and guilt.
  • ignores individual differences between the participants - the behaviour of the guards varied. most guards displayed sadistic behaviour towards the prisoners whereas some actually helped the prisoners.
• what was the conclusion Zimbardo made after his experiment?

  • Zimbardo concluded that people quickly conform to social roles, even when the role goes against their moral principles.
  • furthermore, he concluded that situational factors were largely responsible for the behaviour found, as none of the participants had ever demonstrated these behaviours previously.