Conformity to Social Roles (Zimbardo)

• What are social roles defined as?

  Expected behaviors in social groups
• What did Zimbardo investigate in his prison experiment?

  Situational factors causing aggression in prisons
• What was the primary aim of Zimbardo's Prison Experiment?

  Investigate conformity to social roles
• How many male students participated in Zimbardo's experiment?

  24
• What characteristic did the participants of the Zimbardo experiment have in common?

  Emotionally stable
• Where was the mock prison set up for Zimbardo's experiment?

  Stanford University basement
• What happened to the 'prisoners' at the start of the Zimbardo experiment?

  Arrested at home, blindfolded, given uniforms
• What items did the guards have in the Zimbardo experiment?

  Uniforms, clubs, handcuffs, full authority
• What roles did Zimbardo play in the experiment?

  Prison superintendent and lead investigator
• What was an immediate finding of Zimbardo's Prison Experiment?

  Conformity to roles (guards and prisoners)
• What behaviors did the prisoners and guards begin to exhibit?

  Guards aggressive, prisoners submissive
• How long did it take for prisoners to rebel in the SPE?

  2 days
• What emotional states did prisoners exhibit later in the SPE?

  Anxiety and depression
• How long was the Zimbardo Prison Experiment originally scheduled to run?

  2 weeks
• How long did the Zimbardo Prison Experiment actually last?

  6 days
• Why was the Zimbardo Prison Experiment stopped early?

  Due to distress
• According to Zimbardo, what influenced behavior the most?

  Situational factors and social roles
• What is a real-world application of Zimbardo's Prison Experiment?

  US prison reforms
• What did debriefing involve in Zimbardo's study?

  Informing participants of aims & results
• Why did the study have high internal validity?

  Controlled selection of emotionally stable participants
• Why does Zimbardo's study lack ecological validity?

  Participants may have acted based on expectations
• Why did Zimbardo's study lack population validity?

  All male, American students
• How did Zimbardo's dual role create experimenter bias?

  May have influenced participants
• What are situational factors in psychology?

  External environmental influences on behaviour
• What are dispositional factors in psychology?

  Internal personality traits on behavior
• What are demand characteristics in research?

  Participants alter behaviour based on expectations