Haney banks and Zimbardo (1973) A study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison prison Flashcards
Background to the study
Prisons in the US in the early 1970s were full of conflict. There were major riots from prisoners arguing that they were being treated unfairly by guards. The researchers wanted to understand how conflict between prisoners and guards arose.
Aim of the study
To investigate prisoner-guard conflict in a simulated prison
Procedure of study
22 participants were selected to take part in a study. Oner dropped out leaving 10 prisoners and 11 guards who were randomly assigned to the two roles. All participants were male college students that were paid 15$ a day for participation. The simulated prison was set up in the Stanford University basement. The guards were asked to maintain order in the prison and were dressed up in military style uniforms. The prisoners were arrested by real police officers and taken to the station to be processed. they were stripped and given a muslin stock to wear. they were referred to by their identification number
Results of the study
After only a few hours, the guards were observed to becoming increasingly aggressive and controlling towards prisoners and this increased throughout the study. On the second day prisoners rebelled by barricading themselves in their cells. Over the next few days, guards increasingly intimidated prisoners and there was an escalation in verbal aggression. The study was stopped prematurely after 6 days as behaviour was out of control and prisoners started to show signs of anxiety and depression and were desperate to leave the study
Conclusion of the study
Both the prisoners and guards conformed to the roles they were assigned. Prisoners became submissive and guards became violent and hostile. The uniforms deindividuated them, facilitating this change in behaviour; they lost their personal identities and adopted the identities they were given
Strengths of the study
It has informed us about how prisons are being run which can explain the atrocities that happen
There is evidence to indicate that prisoners and guards weren’t acting as all of their recorded transactions were mostly about prison life so they were immersed
Weaknesses of the study
The study was only conducted on male college students which limits the generalisability
There was a clear difference between the simulated
prison and real prisons such as the limited forms of abuse so prisoners and guards could have been acting how they were expected to act which lowers the ecological validity.
