A03
Cards (4)
- * explains events in real life?
- during iraq war some of US army committed series of human right violations against prisoners of war - carrying out violent & abusive acts on them
- untrained guards who had no history of violence were put in bad situation led to bad series of events
- means soldiers conformed to roles & maintained order in prison by any means even when going against own morals
- ecological
- events at abu ghraib support zimbardos original findings
- shows people do conform to social roles in real life situations
- X influenced by investigator effects?
- newly analysed recordings shows zimbardo acting as superintendent was heavily influencing guards to act as "tough guards"
- e.g becoming increasingly aggressive
- dehumanised prisoners meaning their behaviour may be unnatural
- ? valid
- findings may not reflect natural behaviour in conformity to social roles as presence of zimbardo caused behaviour to differ
- X low reliabilty?
- replication of zimbardos study in early 2000s conducted by reicher & haslam
- found that guards did not identify with their status & refused to impose their authority
- prisoners identified as group to challenge guards authority
- resulted in shift of power & collapse of prison system
- results contradict findings of zimbardos & suggests conformity to social roles may not be automatic as zimbardo originally implied
- X breaks ethical guidelines?
- p put in situation that caused great deal of physical & psychological stress
- guards became increasingly aggressive
- 5 prisoners released early due to crying & extreme anxiety
- only lasted 6 days instead of 14 - conditions were inhumane
- means that both prisoners & guards left study in different state to that they arrived in - caused harm
- ? credible
- did not protect p thus breaking bps ethical guidelines
- may impact integrity of research as there are more ethical ways to test how social roles affect levels of conformity
- uethical procedures means its difficult to repeat