Conformity to social roles - zimbardo

• Conformity to social roles


  Tendency for people to behave in accordance with the expected norms and behaviours associated with a particular social role
• Stanford Prison Experiment


  • Investigated whether people would conform to social roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison environment
  • Used a volunteer sample of 24 emotionally stable students randomly assigned to the roles of prisoners or guards
  • Set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University
  • Prisoners were arrested by the local police in their homes and delivered to the prison to add realism
  • Prisoners were issued uniform and guards were given complete power over the prisoners
• Findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment

  1. Within 2 days, prisoners rebelled against guards' harsh treatment

  2. Guards also harassed the prisoners by conducting head counts and punishing them

  3. 3 prisoners were released early due to psychological disturbance

  4. The study stopped after 6 days instead of the intended 14 days

  5. Zimbardo concluded that prisoners and guards both conformed to their social roles and guards became more brutal and aggressive as they identified with their role
• Obedience


  Following a direct order from a figure of authority
• One limitation of Zimbardo's study


  It lacks realism of a true prison as participants based their behaviour on their stereotypes of how prisoner and guards are supposed to behave
• One of the guards claimed he based his role on a brutal character from a film
• The findings of Zimbardo's study


  Tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons
• Strength of Zimbardo's study


  • He recruited emotionally stable participants only so their behaviors were due to pressures of the situation not their personality, which increases the study's internal validity
• There are ethical issues in Zimbardo's study

  Participants were deceived into thinking the study was on prison life and Zimbardo himself played a dual task as he was both prison superintendent and researcher
• When a student wanted to leave the study


  Zimbardo responded as a superintendent worrying about running the prison than protecting his participants from harm
• Dispositional (personality) influences


  Factors related to an individual's personality that influence their behaviour
• Limitation of Zimbardo's study


  He exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour and minimised the influence of dispositional factors (personality)
• In Zimbardo's original experiment, the behaviour of the guards varied dramatically
• Behaviour of guards in Zimbardo's study

  • 1/3 were cruel to the prisoners
  • 1/3 were keen on applying the rules fairly
  • 1/3 actively tried to help the prisoners
• Most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a brutal role
• This suggests


  Situational factors are not the only cause of conformity to social roles and dispositional factors also play a role
• Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argued


  Guards were only 'play acting' rather than genuinely conforming to a role
• One of the participants suggested he was copying what he saw in the film 'Cool Hand Luke'
• Participants' performances were based on the stereotypes on how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave
• This suggests


  The findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons