zimbardo's study into conformity

• zimbardo did the stanford prison experiment - wanted to understand how identification with roles can determine certain behaviours
• procedure of zimbardo's study

  • advert for volunteers needed for psychological experiment
  • 75 respondents had to complete questionnaire about family background, mental health, attitudinal tendency to psychopathy and involvement in crime
  • based on results from questionnaire - 24 men selected (those who were most physically and mentally stable)
  • 24 ptts randomly assigned role of prisoner/guard
• zimbardo's aim for stanford prison experiment

  • find out whether out behaviours are mainly formed through dispositional/situational motivation
• dispositional motivation = due to personality
• situational motivation = due to social surroundings
• findings of zimbardo's study on conformity

  • experiment called off after 6 days (meant to be 14)
  • at start prisoners resisted the guards - began to no longer stand up to guards so did as told
  • guards used power to bully/humiliate prisoners
  • 2 prisoners had nervous breakdown
  • 1 went on hunger strike
  • 1 had nervous rash - shows impact of brutality from 'guards'
• conclusion of zimbardos study

  • conformation to social roles was seen
  • students given new roles - both prisoners.guards conformed to behaviour of set roles
  • shows identification with role can be powerful determinant of our behaviour
  • experiment demonstrated power of situations to alter human behaviour
• evaluation points for zimbardos study into conformity

  • ethical issues
  • temporal validity and demand characteristics
  • individual differences
• ethical issues (+) being eval point for zimbardos study

  • controversy as to whether zimbardos study was ethical
  • he broke BPS guidelines including protection from harm and consent - although ptts consented to take part they didnt consent being arrested in own home
  • zimbardos study can be considered as ethical as it follows guidelines of stanford unit ethics committee which study was approved by
  • attempted to make amends for ethical issues such as consent and protection from harm by debriefing sessions for years after
  • strength as he considered ethical issues which were later acted on
• temporal validity and demand characteristics

  • zimbardo carried out experiment in 1971 where findings were only relevant to time period it was conducted in due to change in social roles and conformity of individuals
  • researchers found contradictory finding which showed there could be potential for demand characteristics from ptts as result of them guessing what is expected of them
  • limitation being SPE's research into conformity is the ptts behaviour may not be due to response to prison environment but instead response to powerful demand characteristics occurring
  • limits experiments validity
• individual differences as eval point for zimbardos research

  • zimbardo believed conformity to roles was automatic behaviour - guards sadistic behaviour was an automatic consequence of following theor role which prevented them from understanding what they were doing is wrong
• individual differences as eval point for zimbardos research

  • zimbardo believed conformity to roles was automatic behaviour - guards sadistic behaviour was automatic consequence of following role which prevented them understanding what doing is wrong
  • findings went against zimbardos beliefs - not all guards responded in same way - behaviour varied - good guards didnt degrade prisoners
  • researchers argue shows guards chose how to behave rather than conforming to social roles given - shows individuals differences in behaviour towards conformity
  • individual differences disrupting findings of SPE