The Stanford Prison Study - Zimbardo

Explain the Stanford prison study

• Aim - to see whether people will conform to new social roles

• Procedure -

  • male psychology students

  • volunteered to take part

  • random allocation - between prisoner and prison guards

  • prisoners spend two weeks in cells and prison guards there to look after prisoners and keep them under control

  • prisoners arrested from homes unexpectedly - they were stripped deloused and given prison uniform/number

  • had to refer to number not name

  • prison guards - worked regular shifts

• Results -

  • experiment called off after 6 days

  • prison guards become brutal that prisoners had nervous breakdowns and nervous rashes

  • prisoners become apathetic - were not easily controlled

• Conclusion -

  • participants reactions were extreme as they conformed to social roles

  • deindividuation - individual becomes so immersed in norms of group that you lose sense of responsibility and identity

Evaluation (STRENGTHS)

• control over variables -

  • had some control such as selection of participants

  • wanted to rule out individual personality differences in their findings - needed emotionally stable people and randomly assigned

Evaluation (WEAKNESS)

• lack of realism/artificial task -

  • mohavedi argued that participants were play acting rather than actually conforming to the role

  • performances based on stereotypes of how roles are actually meant to be played

• Counterpoint -

  • evidence showed situation was real to participants

  • 90% of conversations were about prison life

  • high degree of internal validity

• Dispositional influences -

  • Fromm - criticised Zimbardo of exaggerating power of situation to influence behaviour

  • only minority of guards behaved in brutal manner

  • conclusion may be overstated - guards able to exercise right and wrong choices

• Lack of research support -

  • Reicher and Haslam replicated study

  • findings different to Zimbardo - prisoners eventually took control and guards were harassed instead

  • social identity theory - identified themselves as members of social group that refused to accept the limits of their assigned role as prisoners

• Ethical Issues -

  • one participants wanted to leave

  • Zimbardo spoke to him as a superintendent worried about how the prison is running rather than his participants psychological issues

• Real life applications - Abu Graib

  • The Abu Ghraib scandal involved U.S. soldiers abusing detainees in an Iraqi prison, highlighting severe military misconduct and systemic failures.

  • both show how roles assigned such as prison guard led to conformity of social roles and violence

  • both show how prisoners were dehumanized to a certain extent

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