conformity to social roles

• social roles:


  the 'parts' people play as members of various social groups. everyday examples include parent, child, student, passenger, etc. these are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role, for example caring, obedient, industrious, etc
• there had been many prison riots in america in the 1970's and zimbardo wanted to know why prison guards behave brutally - was it because they have sadistic personalities or was it their social role (as a prison guard)
• zimbardo's stanford prison experiment (spe):


  • mock prison in the basement of stanford university
  • 21 male student volunteers - 'emotionally stable'
  • randomly assigned to play role of prison guard or prisoner
  • participants encouraged to conform to social roles through uniforms and instructions about behaviour
  • uniforms: prisoners were identified by number, guards given uniform with props
  • created a loss of personal identity (de-individuation) making it more likely for them to conform
  • instructions about behaviour: prisoners could apply for parole, guards were reminded they had control over prisoners
• zimbardo's findings related to social roles:


  • guards took up their role with enthusiasm by treating the prisoners harshly
  • prisoners rebelled within 2 days
  • guards harassed prisoners constantly to remind them of their powerlessness and created opportunities to enforce rules and administer punishment
  • 1 prisoner was released (symptoms of psychological disturbance), 2 more were released on the 4th day, 1 went on a hunger strike, leading to the guards punishing him
  • guards behaviour became increasingly brutal
  • prisoners became increasingly depressed
  • study ended after 6 days instead of the original 14
• zimbardo's conclusions related to social roles:


  • social roles appear to have a strong influence on individuals' behaviour
  • guards became brutal and prisoners became submissive
  • roles were taken on easily by participants
• evaluating zimbardo; control:


  strength

  • zimbardo had control over key variables
  • only emotionally stable participants were chosen and randomly assigned to their roles which ruled out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings
  • therefore this increased the internal validity so we can be more confident in drawing conclusions from the findings
• evaluating zimbardo; lack of realism:


  limitation

  • did not have the realism of a true prison
  • banuazizi and movahedi (1975) argued the participants were only play acting rather than genuinely conforming to a social role
  • participants' performances were based on their stereotypes of how these roles are meant to behave
  • one guard claimed he based his role on a character from film cool hand luke
  • therefore findings tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons
• evaluating zimbardo; lack of realism:


  counterpoint

  • mcdermott (2019) argues that the participants did behave as if the prison was real
  • 90% of the prisoners' conversations were about prison life, they discussed how it was impossible to leave the spe before their sentences were over
  • prisoner 416 explained how he believed the prison was real but run by psychologists rather than the government
  • therefore the study has a high degree of internal validity as it's suggested that the spe did replicate the social roles of prisoners and guards in a real prison
• evaluating zimbardo; exaggerates the power of roles:


  limitation

  • may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour
  • only 1/3 of guards behaved in a brutal way, another 1/3 tried to apply the rules fairly, the rest actively tried to help the prisoners and sympathised with them
  • most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform
  • therefore zimbardo may have overstated his view that participants were conforming to social roles and minimised the influence of dispositional factors
• evaluating zimbardo; alternative explanation:


  extra

  • zimbardo's explanation was that conforming to social roles comes naturally
  • by being given the role of guard, participants were bound to behave brutally
  • reicher and haslam (2006) criticise this as it doesn't explain the behaviour of non brutal guards
  • they used social identity theory instead to argue that the guards had to actively identify with their social roles to act as they did
• orlando's (1973) mock psychiatric ward:


  • orlando decided to investigate how conformity to social roles can influence people to behave in extreme ways
  • she selected staff at a psychiatric hospital to play the roles of patients for 1 week
  • after 2 days, several patients experienced symptoms of psychological disturbance with a few trying to escape
  • over time, participants became more anxious and depressed
  • study had been ended early as some patients were losing their sense of self identity
• abu ghraib:

  • in 2003-2004, us army military committed serious human rights violations against iraqi prisons at abu ghraib prison, baghdad
  • the prisoners were tortured, abused, humiliated, and some were murdered
  • zimbardo noticed similarities between behaviours of the abu ghraib personnel and the spe guards