Zimbardo SPE

• Zimbardo's Prison experiment was a mock prison at Stanford University. There was approximately 20 pps.
• It lacked realism, and it can be argued participants were just play acting, rather than conforming to a social role. Their behaviour was based on stereotypes on how prisoners and guards were supposed to behave. However, Zimbardo gathered Quantitative data and found that 90% of prisoner's conversations were about prison life. Since it seemed real to the participants, the study had a high degree of internal validity.
• Both prisoners and guards were given uniforms that would dictate their social roles
• Zimbardo used volunteer sampling and chose participants who he believed were emotionally stable enough
• Students were randomly allocated either a prisoner or guard. Prisoners were arrested at their home, blindfolded, and given a number as a name and a uniform, and were given 16 rules to follow.
• Guards had handcuffs, keys and wooden clubs
• The study was stopped after 6 days, rather than the intended 14. Within two days, prisoners rebelled by ripping their uniform and swearing at guards, who responded with fire extinguishers. Guards highlighted the difference in social roles, by creating many opportunities to enforce rules and punishment. After the rebellion, prisoners became depressed.
• One prisoner had to leave after one day, due to psychological damage, two more after four days. One prisoner went on hunger strike, and was put in a dark closet as punishment, shunned by other prisoners. The guards identified more and more with their social role, some seeming to enjoy the aggressive power over the prisoners.
• Zimbardo's study had many ethical issues. For example, Zimbardo told a participant who asked to leave that they could not, meaning there was no right to withdraw established.
• All his participants were male and from Stanford University (in America). This means the findings cannot be generalised to women or anyone from a different type of culture.
• Many pps had to leave, meaning there was the ethical issue of psychological damage.