ZIMBARDO - THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT: CONFORMITY TO SOCIAL ROLES

AIM:

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

PROCEDURE:

  • 21 male student volunteers who tested as ‘emotionally stable’ were randomly assigned to the role of prisoner or guard.

  • Prisoners were given a loose smock & cap to wear, and a number to be identified by

  • Guards were given wooden clubs, handcuffs and mirrored sunglasses

  • Guards were frequently reminded of their power over the prisoners

FINDINGS:

  • Within 2 days, prisoners rebelled by ripping up their uniforms. Guards retaliated with fire extinguishers.

  • One prisoner was released early due to signs of psychological disturbance (Two more were released the following day due to the same cause)

  • One prisoner went on a hunger strike, to which the guards attempted to force feed him, and punished him by putting him in ‘the hole’ (a tiny dark closet).

  • Guards became increasingly aggressive and brutal.

  • This all led to Zimbardo ending the study after 6 days instead of the intended 14 days

CONCLUSION:

  • Social roles appear to have a strong influence on behaviour.

  • The guards became brutal and the prisoners became submissive, therefore easily undertaking their respective roles.

<EVALUATION>

Research Support

→ CONTROL

  • One strength of the study is that Zimbardo had control over key variables.

  • For example, only emotionally stable participants were chosen, and the social roles were randomly assigned.

  • This rules out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings. If guards and prisoners behaved very differently, but were randomly assigned to their respective roles, then their behaviour must have been due to the role itself

  • The degree of control over the variables increases the internal validity of the study.

Conflicting Evidence

→ LACK OF REALISM

  • One limitation is that it did not have the realism of a true prison

  • Some people argue that participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role. They suggested that their behaviour was based on their stereotypes of how prison guards and prisoners behave.

  • For example, one guard later said in an interview that he based his role on a character from the film ‘Cool Hand Luke’

  • This suggests that the findings tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons.

  • However, another psychologist argued that the participants did behave as if the prison was real to them.

  • For example, one prisoner claimed he thought it was a ‘real prison run by psychologists’.

  • This suggests that the experiment did successfully replicate the social roles of prisoners and guards in a prison.

  • This gives the study a high degree of internal validity.

→ EXAGGERATES THE POWER OF ROLES

  • Another limitation is that Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour

  • For example, only 1/3 of guards acted in a brutal manner. Another 1/3 tried to apply the rules fairly. The rest actively tried to support the prisoners - some guards even gave the prisoners contraband such as cigarettes.

  • Most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a brutal role

  • This suggests Zimbardo overstated his view that participants were conforming to social roles.