Conformity to social roles

• Zimbardo studied conformity into social roles using 21 male emotionally stable volunteers.
• Zimbardo took the ppts from their homes and randomly assigned them to either guard or prisoner.
• The experiment was set up as a mock prison with cells, interrogation room etc.
• The guards were given uniforms, batons and shaded glasses.
• The prisoners were given uniforms and numbers instead of names. They were not allowed to wear watches or have any personal belongings.

  This reinforced deindividuation.
• Guards were told to instill discipline while prisoners were told to do what they wanted.
• The findings of the study showed prisoners were treat harshly and the rules were constantly reinforced.
• Prisoners rebelled within 2 days but soon became depressed and anxious.
• 1 prisoner went on a hunger strike and had to be force fed then locked in a dark closet.

  1 prisoner was released after he showed signs of psychological disturbance.
• The experiment stopped 6 days in out of 14.
• AO3

  :) - Abu Ghraib

  American prison guards abused prisoners sadistically by torturing, raping and murdering some prisoners.

  They delegated blame and stated they had just been following orders as part of their interrogation purposes.

  Shows similarities to Zimbardo's study showing that 'ordinary' people can do horrible things when they lose their individuality.

  Increases the validity by providing real life evidence to support conformity to social roles.
• AO3

  :( - Lacks ecological validity

  It could be said that the pps were play acting instead of comforming to their roles.

  1 ppt acting as a guard stated he'd based his behaviour off a character from the film cool hand luke.

  This shows that the results of the experiment may have been innacurate and based on dishonest behaviour and therefore it may not be generalisable.
• AO3

  :/ - Counterpoint

  Zimbardo stated that 90% of the prisoner's conversations were about prison life.

  This shows the immersive nature of the experiment.

  Contradicts the point of a lack of ecological validity and presents evidence of high ecological validity as it represented real life for some pps.