Conformity to Social Roles

• • Social roles are the behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a particular social position.
  • You adapt your behaviour to fit in with the expectations that you & others have of that role.
• The Stanford Prison Experiment- Zimbardo 1971: 1

  • 75 volunteer PPs
  • Mock prison set up in the basement of the Stanford University Psychology building.
  • Volunteers responded to an ad placed by Zimbardo to take place in a 2 week study for $15 a day.
  • Zimbardo was influenced by prison riots & wanted to see if it was down to people's disposition- "bad seeds", or situation- "bad soil".
  • All PPs were psychologically & physically assessed to ensure they were healthy & well (eg no history of crime, mental illness or drug use).
• The Stanford Prison Experiment- Zimbardo 1971: 2

  • 24 most stable PPs were selected & randomly assigned to either 'prisoner' or 'guard'.
  • Both groups were treated in a way to get them into their roles.
  • Prisoners: given a uniform & deloused, referred to by number, removed of certain rights (eg choosing when to eat/ sleep) & arrested at home.
  • Guards: given a briefing, told they could do anything to discipline prisoners without physically harming them, given uniform & whistle
  • Zimbardo: took on the role of Prison Superintendent
  • Neither group were instructed on how to behave.
• Zimbardo's 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment Findings:

  • Guards & prisoners settled into their new roles, guards adopted to theirs quickly & easily.
  • Over a few days, the relationship between the prisoners & guards changed:
  • Guards: became increasingly brutal in their treatment of the prisoners, devising new ways to discipline & harass them.
  • Prisoners: became increasingly passive & compliant to the guards' orders, behaving like they really were prisoners.
  • Zimbardo: became immersed in his role, began to resent 'bleeding heart academics' coming to observe him.
  • Study brought to stop after 6 days
• Zimbardo's 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment Conclusions:

  • Study stopped after intervention of a researcher who had nothing to do with the study.
  • People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play.
  • This happens because of identification.
  • The effect is stronger to roles we have strong stereotypes about (even if they go against our morals).
  • It helps maintain social order, eg we all know how we are expected to behave in different situations without being told.
• Evaluation for research on Conformity to Social Roles- Weakness:

  • The SPE has been criticised as the results could have been caused by demand characteristics; many guards claimed they were just acting in the way they had guessed the experimenters wanted them to, eg prisoners became submissive & guards became domineering.
  • Means the study has poor validity & cannot be applied to real life because results only occurred due to the experimental situation.
  • But, most of PPs private convos were about 'prison life' & guards offered to work free overtime to keep control of prisoners- no demand charac?
• Evaluation for research on Conformity to Social Roles- Weakness:

  • There are major ethical issues (potential unleashing 'unpleasant' characteristics in guards & prisoners placed in an environment where distress deliberately provoked) with the study & we shouldn't use unethical research's results.
  • However, Zimbardo did extensive debriefing of the PPs for years afterwards & concluded there was no long term damage.
  • The research also paved the way for proper ethical guidelines governing psychological research to be published.
• Evaluation for research on Conformity to Social Roles- Weakness:

  • Recent research has failed to replicate Zimbardo's findings- Reicher & Haslam (2006) replicated Zimbardo's research in the BBC study by randomly assigning 15 men to the role of prisoner or guard, but PPs didn't conform to their social roles automatically.
  • There was a shift of power & a collapse of the prison system (guards didn't identify with their status & prisoners challenged guards' authority).
  • This indicates that the original findings are unreliable & cannot therefore be used to support robust conclusions.