3. Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study

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    1. Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study
    Zimbardo (1973) - Stanford Prison Exp (SPE).
    • Investigate social roles and effect on conformity.
    • Mock prison, Stanford Uni.
    • Male volunteers, most stable 21 randomly assigned role = prisoner/guard.
    • Uniform for each role (De-individuation).
    • Planned to last 2 weeks.
  • 1a. Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study
    Zimbardo (1973) - SPE:
    • Guards = increasingly abusive.
    • Unaware being watched = still conformed.
    • 5 prisoners released early after 2 days.
    • Ended after 6 days; couldn’t justify abuse.
    • Both conformed to social roles; guards (sadistic), prisoners (passive).
  • 2. Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study
    Real-Life Application:
    • 2003-04, United States Military Police personnel = human rights violations against Iraq prisoners.
    • Abu Ghraib prison.
    • Tortured, physically/sexually abused, murdered, etc.
    • Zimbardo noted similarities between his prisoners + ones in Iraq.
  • Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study (Evaluation)
    Strength:
    P - control over key variables.
    E - emotionally stable chose + randomly assigned = ruled out individuals personality differences as explanation.
    E - bc of randomness, behaviour’s down to social roles.
    L - increased internal validity = conclusions about role of conformity.
  • Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study (Evaluation)
    Limitation:
    P - lack realism of real prison.
    E - Banuazizi + Movahedi (1975), participants ‘play acting’, based roles on stereotypes.
    E - one guard based role on film character.
    L - demand characteristics lowers internal validity, tells little about conformity to social roles in real prisons.
  • Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study (Evaluation)
    Strength:
    P - McDermott (2019), participants behaved as if real to them.
    E - 90% prisoners conversations about prison life.
    L - SPE replicated social roles of prisoners/guards in real prison.
  • Conformity to Social Roles - Zimbardo’s Study (Evaluation)
    Limitation:
    P - Zimbardo may’ve exaggerated power of social roles influencing behaviour (Fromm, 1973).
    E - 1/3 guards behaved brutally; 1/3 applied rules fairly; 1/3 supported prisoners.
    E - most guards resisted situational pressures.
    L - overstated view that participants conformed to social roles + minimised influence of dispositional factors (i.e. personality).