Zimbardo - Conformity to Social Roles

• Social identity

  The ways in which group membership influences behaviour
• Social roles

  • Teacher
  • Student
  • Parent
  • Child
• Zimbardo's study

  Investigate how readily people would conform to the assigned social roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life
• Purpose of the study

  Investigate why prison guards behave brutally - whether they have sadistic personalities or if it's their social role as a prison guard that creates their behaviour
• Stanford prison experiment

  1. Converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison

  2. Advertised for students to play the roles of prisoners and guards for a two-week study

  3. 21 male student volunteers who were tested and found to be 'emotionally stable' were selected as participants

  4. Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard

  5. Prisoners and guards were encouraged to conform to their social roles both through instructions and the uniforms they wore
• Prisoner uniform

  • Loose smock, cap to cover hair, identified by assigned number only
• Guard uniform

  • Khaki uniform, wooden club, handcuffs, mirror shades
• De-individuation

  Loss of the individual's personal identity, meaning they would be more likely to conform to their perceived social role
• A colleague of Zimbardo's visited the study and was horrified at the abuse and exploitation she saw
• Zimbardo ended the experiment after six days instead of the 14 originally planned
• Strengths of the research

  • Prisoners and guards were randomly assigned to their roles, increasing the control Zimbardo had over the internal validity of the study
  • The study led to changes in US prisons to protect the vulnerable and make prisons safer
• Weaknesses of the research

  • Individual differences and personality also determine the extent to which a person conforms to social roles
  • The guards' behaviour differed between them: Not all guards were so harsh or cruel
  • Participants were acting in a stereotypical way, e.g. one guard based his behaviour on a brutal character he had seen in a film
  • Lack of realism compared to a real prison
  • Ethical issues - participants were subjected to psychological harm, which could have been long-lasting, and the right to withdraw was made difficult
• Guards and prisoners

  • Settled into their new roles very quickly
• Guards

  • Adopted their social role quickly, easily and with enthusiasm
• Within hours of beginning the experiment

  Some guards began to harass prisoners and treat them harshly
• Within two days

  The prisoners rebelled; they ripped their uniforms and shouted and swore at guards
• The guards

  Used fire extinguishers to retaliate, using 'divide-and-rule' tactics, playing the prisoners off against each other and completing headcounts, sometimes at night
• Prisoners

  • Adopted prisoner-like behaviour e.g. became subdued, 'snitched' to the guards about other prisoners, took prison rules seriously, increasingly became docile and obedient
• As the prisoners became more submissive

  The guards became more aggressive and assertive taking on their social roles easily
• The guards demanded ever greater obedience from the prisoners
• A colleague of Zimbardo's visited the study and was horrified at the abuse and exploitation she saw
• Zimbardo ended the experiment after six days instead of the 14 originally planned