Zimbardo

• social roles are a socially defined pattern of behaviour that is expected of persons who occupy a certain social position or belong to a particular social category
• Identification is the process of individuals adopting the behaviour of a group that they value and want to belong to. These roles provide a social identity, an individual's sense of who they are. By conforming to these social roles, the 'socially defined pattern of behaviour' individuals feel a stronger connection to the group.
• Zimbardo was concerned about the intense aggression within the U.S prison system and thought the reason for aggression was not dispositional but situational, the environment of the prison itself and conformity to the social roles created by the prison enviroment.

  He designed the Stanford prison experiment (SPE) to explore conformity to social roles in a simulated prison enviroment.
• the SPE aimed to understand the psychological impact of situational forces by observing how typical, healthy individuals would conform to assigned social roles of guards (oppressive) and prisoners (submissive)
• Zimbardo procedure

  • an observational study of 24 male students from the U.S who volunteered to participate in a 7-14 day study, receiving $15 per day
  • after psychological assessments to ensure they were stable and healthy, ppts were randomly allocated to either the role of a prisoner or guard
• prisoners

  • they experienced unexpected arrests at home, were deloused, given a prison uniforms and ID numbers, and 3 prisoners were placed in each small mock prison cell
  • they were given a list of rules to follow and limited rights, such as 3 meals a day, supervised toilet trips, and visits
• guards

  • they were given uniforms, clubs, whistles, and reflective sunglasses to establish authority and were instructed to manage the prison without harming the prisoners
  • in teams of 3, the guards worked 8-hour shifts, after which they were allowed to leave the site
• findings

  • ppts quickly lost their personal identities and adapted to their assigned social roles
  • prisoners: after an initial failed attempt at resistance, showed signs of stress, anxiety, passivity and helplessness; some were released early after emotional breakdowns
  • guards: empowered by their uniforms and anonymity provided by sunglasses and domineering behaviour. The study was halted after just six days due to the ethical concerns raised by the intense reactions
• +

  • the SPE initial setup was well controlled
  • Zimbardo carefully selected ppts using psychological screening to ensure they were healthy, psychologically stable, and without criminal records
  • additionally, the roles of guards and prisoners were randomly allocated
  • this control supports the argument that the behaviours shown in SPE resulted from the social roles and the prison enviroment rather than individual dispositions
• +

  • Zimbardo's SPE insights into how social roles can influence behaviour can help explain incidents of cruelty and abuse in institutional settings
  • e.g. the guards in Abu Gharib, like those in the SPE, performed highly abusive behaviours
  • recognising the impact of situational factors on human behaviour has led to the practical application of increased training and oversight in military and law enforcement settings to prevent abuses
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  • Reicher and Haslam's replication of the SPE for the BBC challenged Zimbardo's conclusions by demonstrating that ppts do not inevitably conform to their assigned roles of guards or prisoners
  • unlike Zimbardo's study, where guards became increasingly cruel. Reicher and Haslam found that ppts resisted behaviours that conflicted with their identities
  • this studies findings and the fact only one third of guards in the original SPE demonstrated sadistic behaviour suggests social roles have a limited influence, and idnividuals have agency and moral choice in their actions
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  • Zimbardo took on a dual role as the principal investigator and prison superintendent
  • this involvement may have led to experimenter bias, Zimbardo's presence influencing the ppts behaviour to fit the expected outcomes of the study
  • demand characteristics are likely to have occurred, ppts acting in ways they believed matched Zimbardo's expectations
  • recent reviews of the SPE recordings have even provided evidence that the guards were trained to be aggressive, casting serious doubt about the validity of the observed behaviours and conclusions
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  ppts experienced significant psychological harm; Zimbardo's decision to continue the experiment despite signs of emotional breakdown and the extreme reactions of both guards and prisoners demonstrates the need for strict ethical controls in psychological experiments, especially those that may put ppts in distressing situations