conformity to social roles

• Zimbardo's Prison Experiment - procedure

  21 men

  randomly assigned to the role of prisoner or guard

  prisoners arrested and were given uniforms and numbers

  guards were also given uniforms based on role and were given wooden clubs, handcuffs, and sunglasses

  uniforms are given to de-humanize prisoners

  both guards and prisoners encouraged to stay in social role assigned
• Zimbardo's Prison Experiment - Findings

  guards had taken their roles seriously and would use a 'divide and rule' tactic

  guards were aggressive towards the prisoners and conformed to their roles more seriously than the prisoners

  the guard's behavior was becoming increasingly brutal and aggressive as they would constantly punish prisoners and make up their own rules

  this caused many prisoners to show signs of psychological harm

  the experiment ended after 6 days instead of the intended 14
• control


  P: strength - key variables were controlled

  E: Emotionally stable participants were chosen and were randomly assigned roles of guards and prisoners

  E: this meant that any individual personality characteristics would not interfere with the study

  L: therefore the SPE has high internal validity
• lack of realism


  P: limitation - does not reflect real prison

  E: participants were acting based on stereotypes of prisoners and guards

  E: one participant based his role of a brutal character from a film

  L: therefore the SPE does not truly tell us about conformity to social roles
• counterpoint


  P: strength - prisoners behaved as if prison was real

  E: 90% of conversations were about prison life

  E: prisoner 416 believes the prison was real, only run by psychologists and not the government

  L: therefore SPE did replicate social roles giving the study high internal validity
• exaggerates social roles


  P: limitation - Zimbardo may have exaggerated power of social roles

  E: only one-third of the guards were brutal, the rest were fair and sympathized

  E: the rest of the guards offered the prisoners cigarettes and tried to help them

  L: therefore Zimbardo minimised the influence of dispositional factors such as personality