conformity to social roles - Zimbardo

• social roles


  behaviours expected by an individual who occupies a given social position or status
• Zimbardo's AIM 


  to test whether ordinary people would conform to social roles of prison guard and prisoner in mock prison in Stanford Prison Experiment
• Zimbardo's METHOD


  advertised for students to take part - selected 24 most emotionally stable randomly assigned to role of guard or prisoner - prisoners unexpectedly arrested at home, were blindfolded, strip searched and given uniform and number - prisoners had 16 rules to follow - guards given uniform, wooden club, handcuffs and wore reflective sunglasses (prevented eye contact) - told they had complete power over prisoners like when they could go to toilet - referred to prisoners by numbers - Zimbardo was Prison Superintendent and study planned to last for 2 weeks
• Zimbardo's FINDINGS

  FINDINGS - guards grew increasingly abusive towards prisoners (forced them to clean toilets at night with bare hands) - within 2 days prisoners rebelled (ripped uniforms and shouted at guards) - after rebellion put down, prisoners became subdued and anxious - 5 prisoners left early due to extreme conditions - terminated after 6 days - showed both guards and prisoners conformed to social roles - all appeared to lose sense of personal identity and identified with social roles - guards = aggressive, prisoners = passive
• Zimbardo's CONCLUSION


  CONCLUSION - social roles have a strong influence over behaviour
• ZIMBARDO EVALUATION - high degree of control


  Zimbardo had control over who was selected and randomly allocating them to social roles - by randomly allocating them, he could rule out individual differences because if guards and prisoners behaved differently it must have been due to pressures of situation - high internal validity - however some 'good guards' didn't harass prisoners and did favours for them
• ZIMBARDO EVALUATION - high demand characteristics

  participants may have been play acting - researchers presented details of SPE to group of students who'd never heard it they correctly guessed ordinary people would start to act like real prisoners and guards - a more sadistic guard claimed he based his role on a brutal character from Cool Hand Luke - reduces internal validity
• ZIMBARDO EVALUATION - ethical issues

  no deception involved and participants gave consent questionable whether participants were aware the possible harm they might suffer - Zimbardo acknowledges the study should have stopped earlier (lack of protection from harm) as some participants were experiencing severe emotional distress and some argue the harm could have been anticipated - goes against ethical code of conduct
• ZIMBARDO EVALUATION - practical applications

  might have helped highlight ways emotionally stable, ordinary people can behave extremely different in the right social context and could be used to help prevent brutality in other prison like contexts - similar social pressures may have played a role in the brutality shown at Abu Ghraib Prison - may help prevent future brutality by having greater awareness of issues raised