Zimbarod's study

• Aim of zimbarod's study

  to investigate if violence is caused by personality or conforming to social roles
• what methodology did zimbardo use

  he gathered the ppts through a newspaper add (volunteer sampling) He used a controlled observation He used a overt observation
• Method of zimbardos study

  75 students responded to take part, only 21 were picked out of the 75. Zimbardo randomly allocated the roles of prisoners and guards, ensuring there was an equal amount. They were arrested from their homes, finger-printed and stripped. They were given prisoner outfits and the guards were given guard outfits, sunglasses and a bat.
• results of Zimbardo's study

  the prisoners began to rebel, the guards tortured them using fire extinguishers. The prisoners that followed orders were given special treatment, the prisoners that did not follow orders were made to clean the toilets and were stripped. A prisoner had to leave because he had a fit of hysterical crying, many prisoners went on hunger strikes. He ended the experiment after 6 days
• conclusion about Zimbardo's study

  violence and brutality is not caused by personality but it is caused by conforming to social roles.
• Evaluation of Zimbardo's study- unethical

  it is unethical- it caused the prisoners psychological harm as one had a fit of hysterical crying and the others went on hunger strikes. It is also unethical because the ppts did not know what they were consenting to, they did not know that it would be this traumatic .
• what was Zimbardo's response to the fact that the study was unethical

  he said that he did not realise it was going to go this far and he said that he called off the experiment before things exceeded and got worse and that the ppts were psychologically well
• Evaluation of Zimbardo's study- lacks generalisability 


  the ppts were 21 white male men from Stanford university, therefore the results cannot generalise to men who aren't white or it can not generalise to women, it can't generalise to men who aren't in uni.
• what did Zimbardo respond to the fact that is lacks generalisability

  that it shows real life violence in the real world- so it has practical applications.
• Evaluation of Zimbardo's study- it lacks ecological validity 


  people said that the prisoners were just acting and that they weren't being serious
• what did Zimbardo respond with- lacks ecological validity 


  he said that the prisoners had strong emotions and that 90% of their talk was about life in prison which shows that they are serious
• evaluation of Zimbardo's study- it consists of investigator effects 


  people said that Zimbardo did a ppt observation where he took part in his own study he was a prison warden, so people said that if he did not take part then it would have never exceeded the way it did