1.1 Stanford Prison experiment

What are Social rules?

They focus on social identity i.e. the ways in which group membership influences behaviour

e.g. your social role as student, parent, child, or others.

What Zimbardo wanted to investigate?

How readily people would conform to the assigned social roles

What did Zimbardo's study entail?

• conducted in the basement of the Stanford University building in a mock prison,

• lasted for two weeks, and 21 student volunteers, selected as emotionally stable, participated.

• randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard.

• encouraged to conform to their social roles both through instructions and the uniforms they wore.

What were Zimbardo's findings?

• Participants quickly conformed to their assigned social roles.

• Guards became abusive and harassed prisoners within hours.

• Prisoners rebelled on the second day but later became subdued, passive, and obedient.

• Guards escalated in aggression and authority as prisoners became more submissive.

• A colleague's concern over ethical issues prompted Zimbardo to end the study after 6 days, earlier than the planned 14.

What are the strengths of this study?

• Prisoners and guards were randomly assigned to their roles, increasing the control Zimbardo had over the internal validity (whether the study actually measured what it intended to) of the study.

• A major practical application is that the study meant practices were changed in US prisons to protect the vulnerable and make prisons safer, and a lot of this was due to the study.

What are the weaknesses of this study?

• Individual differences and personality also determine the extent to which a person conforms to social roles. The guards' behaviour differed between them, because not all guards were so harsh or cruel. It has been said the participants were acting in a stereotypical way.

• There is a lack of realism as it was not akin to a real prison. There were ethical issues with the study: The participants were subjected to psychological harm, which could have been long-lasting.

• Also, the right to withdraw was made difficult, perhaps because Zimbardo himself was playing the role of super intendent, which made it hard for at least one prisoner to withdraw from the study.