zimbardo prison experiment

What can. You use the zimbardo prison experiment be used for?

Use on how people conform to their social roles

What type of study is the zimbardo prison experiment

It’s actually not an experiment

It’s a controlled observation study

What did this study show

Demonstrated that both guards and prisoners conformed to their social rules without the need for specific orders from authority figures

What did they find?

Rapid identification with roles

Loss of personal identity deindividuation occurred

• Both groups seemed too lose awareness of their individual identity and adopt group norms instead

What does deindiviuation help explain? How did it show in the experiment?

How ordinary people can commit cruel acts when their identity is masked

Guards wore uniforms and sunglasses - be anonymous

Contributed to inhumane behaviour (less accountable for their actions)

Prisoners stripped of their personal identity (by uniforms and numbers) and became passive and dehumanised

What challenges the internal validity? How did zimbardo respond

We’re behaviours genuine or just acting?

Demand characteristics _ guards may have acted cruelly because thats what was expected (influenced by stereotypes in media)

Zimbardo responded by arguing that the ppt became genuinely immersed in roles (emotional breakdowns and real distress as evidence)

What were the ethical concerns?

Lack of INFORMED CONSENT (Prisoners didn’t know they’d be arrested)

Psychological harm

Low internal validity due to deman haracteristics

Lacks generalisability - ALL PPT WERE MALE AND AMERCAN COLLEGE STUDNETS

So may not reflect behaviour in real prisons