zimbardo eval

• limitation of zimbardo to do with the role of dispositional influences

  Fromm accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour.

  For e.g, only a minority of the guards (about a third) behaved in a brutal manner. Another third were keen on applying the rules fairly. The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners, sympathising with them, offering them cigs and reinstating privileges.

  Most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a brutal role.

  This suggests that Zimbardo's conclusion- that participants were conforming to social roles- may be overstated, and that he may have minimised the role of dispositional factors such as personality
• limiation of zimbardo to do with ethical issues

  Zimbardo's study was considered ethical bc it followed the guidelines of the Stanford Uni ethics committee that had approved it.

  For e.g, there was no deception as all participants were told in advance that many of their usual rights would be suspended

  Zimbardo acknowledges that the study should've been stopped earlier as many experienced emotional distress.

  By acting as both researcher and prison superintendent, 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.
• limitation of zimbardo's study to do with a lack of _______

  lack of realism - Banuazizi and Mohavedi

  agued that participants were play-acting not genuinely conforming to their role

  their performances were based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave. For e.g, one guard said he based his role on a brutal character from the film 'Cool Hand Luke'

  Explains why prisoners rioted bc they thought that was what real prisoners did

  This suggests that the findings of the SPE tells us very little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons
• zimbardo lack of realism counterpoint

  McDermott argues that the participants did behave as if the prison was real to them

  For e.g, 90% of the prisoners' convos were about prison life. They discussed how it was impossible to leave the SPE before their 'sentences' were over.

  This suggests that the SPE did replicate social roles of prisoners and guards in real prisons, giving the study high internal validity