Conformity to social roles

• What was the aim of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • To investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles in a simulated environment, more specifically to investigate why 'good people do bad things'
• What was the procedure of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Set up a simulated prison in the basement of Stanford University's psychology building and selected 21 American student volunteers to play the role of prisoner or guard, each randomly assigned
  • Were encouraged to conform to their roles with uniforms - prisoners being identified by just their numbers leading to de-individuation (loss of identity) and guards carrying handcuffs and wooden bats
  • Prisoners were encouraged to conform by only being allowed in the hallways and toilets, and the guards by being reminded to exercise their complete power over the prisoners
• What were the findings of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Guards enthusiastically conformed with harsh treatment of prisoners, harassing and tormenting them and later having reported relishing in their new-found power and control
  • Post-rebellion the prisoners became depressed and anxious, one even had to be released due to showing signs of psychological disturbance + one went on a hunger strike and was punished by a guard throwing him a dark closet
  • Guards became increasingly brutal and aggressive leading to the study having to be shut down after 6 days rather than the intended 14
• What were the conclusions of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Social roles have a strong influence on people's behaviour, evidenced by the guards brutality and prisoner's submissiveness
  • Such roles were taken on easily by participants suggesting they became increasingly internalised, such as prisoners' only discussing prison issues and forgetting about their previous lives
• What is one strength of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Control over key variables: chose individuals who were tested as emotionally stable and randomly assigning them to the roles of guard and prisoner, eliminating variables such as pre-existing mental health issues or researcher bias in role assignment in influencing the results
  • Increases internal validity of the study meaning we can be more confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of social roles on conformity
• What is one limitation of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Low ecological validity: ppts. knew they were in a study meaning it may have suffered from demand characteristics
  • Banuazizi and Movahedi (1975): said participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming as their performances were based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are meant to behave
  • One guard claimed he based his role on a brutal guard from a character from the film Cool Hand Luke - suggests findings tell us little about conformity in real-life prisons
• What is another limitation of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Dispositional factors: Fromm (1973) pointed out that only 1/3 of guards actually behaved in a brutal manner and 1/3 tried to apply the rules fairly
  • The rest actively tried to help and support prisoners by offering cigarettes and reinstating privileges, resisting situational pressures to conform to such brutality
  • Suggests Zimbardo exaggerated his view that his participants conformed to social roles, minimising the influence of dispositional factors
• What is another limitation of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

  • Ethical issues: participants were not protected from stress, anxiety, emotional distress and embarrassment as one prisoner had to be released due to excess distress and uncontrollable screaming and crying
  • One prisoner showed signs of psychological disturbance and had to be released with another 2 released on the next day
  • Study has low reliability as it could not be replicated according to modern ethical standards so we cannot ensure Zimbardo's findings are truly reliable