Conformity to social roles

• What are social roles?

  The behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position
• What is conformity to social roles?

  When an individual adopts a certain behaviour and belief when in a particular social situation, but stop when they are out of that situation.
• What is the key study which investigated conformity to social roles?

  Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1973)
• Describe the sample used in Zimbardo's (1973) study


  24 American, male undergraduate students
• Describe the procedure of Zimbardo's (1973) study


  x Volunteers psychological and physically screened x Randomly assigned role of 'prisoner' or 'guard' x Prisoners arrested at home and given uniform and assigned ID number x Guards given uniform and wooden clubs and told had complete power over prisoners
• Describe how the prison guards showed conformity to their roles

  x Abused and harassed prisoners- frequent headcounts in middle of night, cleaning toilets with bare hands, punished for smallest misdemeanour
• Describe how prisoners showed conformity?


  x Accepted harsh treatment x Became passive and subdued - 5 had to be withdrawn early
• After how many days was the experiment stopped?

  After 6 instead of 14 days
• What is the overall conclusion from the findings of Zimbardo's (1973) study?


  Demonstrate the power of social roles on people's behaviour - both guards and prisoners conformed to roles even when went against moral principles
• Give an example of a social role other than prisoner or guard

  Teacher / student / policeman