3) Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment

Explain what is meant by a social role?

Conforming to social roles is when an individual adopts a particular behaviour and belief while in a particular social situation.

• Social roles are the parts people play as members of different social groups, such as teachers.

• This is accompanied by the expectations people have of how individuals in these roles should behave.

  • E.G: A teacher at school adopts the behaviour and beliefs of a teacher- very different to them at weekend with friends.

This type of conformity represents identification.

• People are socialised to learn how to behave in certain situations through observing social roles of others and conforming to this behaviour.

What tragic event led to Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment?

The Attica Prison Riot of 1791

40 people were killed as a result of prisoners rioting due to horrendous conditions:

• Racism

• Beatings

• No privacy

• 16 hours a day in cells

Zimbardo wanted to understand why prisoner officers acted brutally- was it their sadistic personalities or was it something about their social role as prison guards?

Describe Zimbardo’s aim of his Stanford Prison Experiment?

To examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner when placed in a mock prison experiment.

• Zimbardo also wanted to examine whether the behaviour displayed in prisons was due to internal dispositional factors (the people themselves) or external situational factors (the environment and conditions of the prison)

Describe Zimbardo’s method for the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Zimbardo’s sample consisted of 21 male university students who volunteered in response to a newspaper advert.

• They were selected from 75 volunteers on the basis of their physical and mental stability.

They were paid $15 a day to take part in the 2 week experiment which was terminated after only 6 days.

• Each participant was randomly assigned to the social role of either a prisoner or a prison guard.

Zimbardo wanted to make it as realistic as possible.

• He turned the basement of Stanford University into a mock prison.

• Zimbardo was the prison warden.

• Prisoners were arrested by real police officers, fingerprinted, stripped, given a numbered smock and chains on ankles.

• Guards were given sunglasses, uniforms, handcuffs and truncheons.

Physical violence to prisoners was forbidden.

Describe the results of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment?

Both prisoners and guards quickly identified with their social roles.

• Within days, prisoners rebelled but this was quickly crushed by guards, who then grew increasingly abusive.

• Guards dehumanised prisoners by waking them during the night and forcing them to clean toilets with their bare hands etc…

• Prisoners became increasingly submissive, identifying further with their subordinate role.

3 prisoners were released from the experiment early due to their adverse reaction- they were disturbed by the physical and mental torment.

• e.g: crying, extreme anxiety

The experiment had to be terminated after just 6 days when a fellow postgraduate student Christina Massachusetts convinced Zimbardo that his conditions were inhumane.

Describe Zimbardo’s conclusion of the Stanford Prison experiment?

Zimbardo concluded that social roles appear to have a strong influence on people’s behaviour.

• Even volunteers who volunteered to perform a specific role (e.g: Chaplin) conformed to behaviour expected in a prison, not a lab study.

Therefore, people conform to social roles quickly even when it goes against their moral principles.

Furthermore, he concluded that situational factors were largely responsible as none of the participants had ever demonstrated these behaviours previously.

Evaluate the strengths of the Stanford prison experiment?

STRENGTH: REAL WORLD APPLICATION- ABU GHRAIB

Zimbardo argued that the same conformity to social role effect was also evident in the Abu Ghraib scandal of 2003/4.

• Factors such as a lack of training, unrelenting boredom and no accountability to higher authority were present in both.

These factors combined with an opportunity to misuse the power associated with the assigned role of ‘guard’ led to abuse in both.

Therefore, it can explain real world atrocities.

STRENGTH: CONTROL

Zimbardo and his colleagues did have control over key variables.

• e.g: only physically and mental stable participants were chosen.

This was one way in which researchers tried to rule out individual personality differences as an explanation for findings.

Therefore, there is increased internal validity so conclusions can be drawn, and cause and effect is better able to be established.

Evaluate the limitations of the Stanford prison experiment?

LIMITATION: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

In Zimbardo’s original experiment, the behaviour of guards varied greatly.

• There was extremely sadistic behaviour by 1/3 of guards.

• However, a few guards actually helped prisoners by offering support, sympathy, offering cigarettes, and reinstating lost privileges.

This suggests that situational factors were not the sole cause of conformity.

• Dispositional factors such as personality play a role.

So, Zimbardo’s conclusions are arguably overstatements.

LIMITATION: ETHICAL ISSUES

On one occasion, a student asked Zimbardo if he could leave the study.

• However, due to Zimbardo’s dual role as warden and investigator of the study- he denied this.

• Thereby, subjecting the prisoner to further harm.

So, Zimbardo himself conformed to the prison warden role, preventing him from fulfilling ethical responsibilities.

This reduces credibility and brings psychology as a discipline into disrepute.