Zimbardo Conformity to social roles- Stanford Prison Experiment AO1 & AO3

What was the procedure?

set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University (Haney et al. 1973)

advertised for students willing to volunteer selected those that were deemed 'emotionally stable'

randomly assigned roles of guards and prisoners

social roles strictly divided

16 rules to follow

What were the findings?

behaviours of guards=threat to prisoners' psychological/physical health

study stopped after 6 days rather than intended 14

guards harrassed and did strip searches punished small misdemenours

What were the prisoners like eventually?

depressed hunger strike

What was the conclusion?

simulation revealed power of conformity to social roles to influence people's behaviour

all conformed (behaved as though they were in a prison)

Strength to do with control of variables

P-had some control over variables E-selection of participants

Limitation

P-lack of realism E-performance based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards were supposed to behave E-one guard claimed he had based his role on a brutal character from the film COOL HAND LUKE This explains why prisoners rioted as they thought this was what real prisoners did L-However Zimbardo pointed to evidence that the situation was real 90% of conversations were about prison life Real to ppts = high internal validity

Give one limitation to do with the role of dispositional influences

P-Influence of individual differences E-Fromm( accused zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour and minimised roles of personality factors E-About a third behaved in a brutal manner Another third applied the rules fairly the rest sympathised L-his conclusion

Give one limitation to do with ethical issues

P-ethical issues E-Zimbardo's dual roles