AO3 - Conformity to Social Roles

• One strength of Zimbardo's research into conformity to social roles is that it has high control over extraneous variables. This is because prior to the experiment, participants' emotional stability was assessed and were randomly assigned to their roles. This allowed Zimbardo to accurately measure the power of social roles to conformity, rather than being affected by personality differences. Therefore increasing the internal validity of Zimbardo's research into conformity to social roles.
• However, one criticism of Zimbardo's research is that it has gender bias, as an all male sample was used. This makes it difficult to generalise the findings to females as it could be argued that the role of a guard is violent, and females would not conform as much due to stereotypes of being more caring and concerned about each other. Therefore reducing the external validity of Zimbardo's research into conformity to social roles.
• Another criticism of Zimbardo's research is that it is prone to demand characteristics. This is because Zimbardo played the role of superintendent in his research, meaning that he could have influenced how the participants behaved. For example, they may have conformed to their social roles because that is what they believed Zimbardo wanted them to do, rather than genuinely conforming to their roles due the prison environment. Therefore lowering the internal validity of Zimbardo's research because he is no longer observing natural conformity, meaning he is no longer measuring what he intended.