social roles

• define social roles

  behaviours, attitudes and expectations associated with particular role within society
• who studied conformity to social roles?

  Zimbardo
• aim

  investigate how people conform to roles of prisoners and guards
• method

  • participants = 24 male psychologically stable volunteers
  • roles = randomly assigned to guard or prisoner in a simulated prison environment
  • conditions = intended to last 2 weeks but stopped after 6 days
• findings

  • guards became authoritarian, abusive and used intimidation to control prisoners
  • prisoners became passive, depressed and submissive
  • power led to role conformity and deindividuation
• conclusion

  people conform to roles even if it means behaving in ways inconsistent with personal values
• define deindividuation

  loss of personal identity
• ✅ zimbardo

  • Abu Ghraib brutalised prisoners
  • social roles and situational pressures lead to extreme behaviour
  • individual differences are still key
• ❌ zimbardo

  • psychological harm
  • starvation and breakdowns
• ❌ zimbardo

  • lacks population validity
  • all male, white and american
  • culturally and gender biased