zimbardo psisons experiemtn measring conformity

what was zimbardo aim

people confrom to social roles

what was zimbardos procedure

Zimbardo's procedure involved assigning college students to the roles of either guards or prisoners. conducted a controlled observation under lab conditions. he did an overt observation.

what was zimbardos findings

Zimbardo's findings revealed that individuals quickly adapted to their assigned roles, with guards exhibiting abusive behavior and prisoners showing high levels of stress. for example one psioner had to leave because og hyspteircla crying. experiment got so bad that it had to stopped after 6 days even tho it was inteneded to stay on for 2 weeks.

what did zimbardo conclude

that prison violence is caused by people cofroming to tgeir social roles via identification. and that behaviour is changed when soical role and environemtn is chahnged.

what did zimbardo say

that prison violence happens because of guards and psrisoners conforming to their social roles.

expalin one critism of zimbarod study

zimbarod study is androcentric and shows gender bias. This is because the study predominantly focused on male participants and may not accurately represent female behavior in similar situations because it doesnt use female aprticipants, so genralsieing this theory is limitations of generalizing findings to all genders, as the dynamics of social roles may differ significantly between males and females.

what is another critisim on zimbardos study

The study lacks ecological validity due to its artificial setting, which does not accurately reflect real-life prison conditions, potentially leading to different behaviors than would occur in actual prisons. and ebcause the p knew that they were involced ina study then they ar emore liekly to display socal desirability bias and changes in behavior may not reflect true reactions under real circumstances.

what is another critism of this study

study showed investigator effect. as zimbardo was playing superintendant he got valuable insight into the study and had complete control to change it which may have influenced participants' behavior and altered the study's outcomes.

why is his study unethical

1. because p were not prptect form psychological harm a sthey experienced alot of shculogial and pshcal harm.

2. informed consent - alothough p did sign up for the study, they were not fully informed of what kind fo traumatic experience they would encounter.

why is culture bias a critism for this study

Participant Background

• The “prisoners” and “guards” were all college-educated, middle-class male volunteers, most of whom were white. This does not reflect the diversity or life experiences of real prisoners or correctional officers.may lead to limited generalizability of the findings to other populations.

how is deindivualisaton and pwer dymanica support for this study

1. Deindividuation and Power Dynamics

   • The SPE effectively demonstrated how situational pressures and assigned social roles can shape behavior, which is highly relevant to real institutional settings like prisons, schools, or the military.

   • The rapid shift toward authoritarianism among guards mirrored real-world cases of prison abuse (e.g., Abu Ghraib), lending the findings real-world relevance, even if not perfectly generalizable.