conformity to social roles

• procedure of Zimbardo's study?

  • male US undergrads (volunteers) were psychologically and physically screened
  • 24 of the most stable of these males selected to take part
  • half assigned guards, half assigned prisoners randomly with the flip of a coin
  • prisoners arrested unexpectedly from homes, brought to basement of University of Stanford set up as a mock prison
  • went through delousing procedure
  • prison uniform, ID number by which they were referred to
  • 3 meals a day, 3 toilet trips a day and 2 visits a week allowed
  • were told they could withdraw at any time
  • Guards given uniform, reflective sunglasses to avoid eye contact, clubs
  • Were told they could do what they wanted to prisoners without harm physically
  • Zimbardo = superintendent
  • Study was planned to last for 2 weeks, stopped after 6 days
• Findings of Zimbardo's study?

  • Guards grew tyrannical, sadistic and abusive towards prisoners
  • made them carry out degrading activities
  • Some guards very enthusiastic- volunteered to do extra hours without pay
  • Prisoners appeared to forget that it was only a psychological study and that they were only acting
  • even when unaware of being watched, still conformed to role as guard/prisoner
  • one prisoner asked to go on parole rather than to quit the study
  • 5 prisoners had to be released early because of extreme reactions
  • study stopped after six days
  • demonstrated that both guards and prisoners conform to social roles
• evaluation of conformity to social roles?

  • 😊 Not automatic- Haslam and Riecher claimed that just excusing sadistic behaviour- some gurads in experiment weren't sadistic and chose to be good
  • ☹️ ethical issues- psychological harm, such that the study had to be stopped early, affects needs of pps. Although Zimbardo debriefed pps over several years and they said no long-term psychological effects
  • ☹️ demand characteristics- some psychologists presented details of the study to a large random group of students, were able to guess aims and predicted findings
  • 😊 explanations for real life conformity to social roles- eg in the war with the Nazis. But BBC prison experiment didn't show this- group behaviour doesn't have to be mindless and tyrannical