Evaluation

• One strength of the SPE is that Zimbardo and his colleagues had control over key variables because only emotionally stable participants were chosen and they were randomly assigned to the roles of guards and prisoners meaning .That the researcher ruled out any individual personality as an Explanation of the findings, thus affect result of the findings. If the participants behaviour between
• prisoner and guard was Very different when in their roles, we can assume that their Behaviour was due to the pressures of their social situation. The degree of control over the variables increases internal validity of The study, so we can be confident in drawing conclusions about the Influence of roles on conformity.
• A limitation of the SPE is that it lacks mundane realism. Banuazizi and mohedavi argued that guards were only play acting Rather than genuinely conforming to the roles. For e.g. one of the participants said his behaviour was based on what he saw in a film and therefore participants behaviour was based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave. This suggests that the SPE tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons.
• Mark McDremott (2019) argues that the participants did behave as if the prison was real to them. • 90/% of the prison's conversation were about prison life. Amongst themselves, they discussed how it was impossible to leave the SPE before their sentences were over. Prisoner 416 later explained how he believed the prison was a real one ‘run by a psychologist not the government’. • This suggest that the SPE did replicate the social roles of prisoners and guards in a real prison, giving the study high internal validity
• Role of dispositional (personality) influences • A limitation of that Zimbardo exaggerate the power of Social roles to influence behaviour AND minimised the Influence of dispositional factors (personality) (Fromm 1973). • In Zimbardo’s original experiment the behaviour of the guards Varied dramatically. Only 1/3 of the guards were cruel to the Prisoners, another 3rd were keen on applying the rules fairly. •
• The other 3rd actively tried to help the prisoners, by offering them Cigarettes/reinstating privileges (Zimbardo 2007). Therefore, most Guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a Brutal role. This suggests that situational factors are not the only cause of Conformity to social roles and dispositional factors also play a role.
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  Ethical Issues By acting as both researcher and Prison superintendent (dual role), Zimbardo created a major ethical Issue as he made it difficult for the Participants to leave. When a Prisoner asked to leave, Zimbardo Responded as a prison Superintendent concerned about His prison instead of as a Psychologist worried about his Participant’s mental state.

  
  

  Making it difficult for them to have a right to withdraw