Zimbardo (1973) Stanford prison experiment

Question 1

Zimbardo’s method

Answer 1

Male students were recruited to act as either guards or prisoners in a mock prison. They were randomly given roles of prisoner or guard, and their behaviour was observed. The prisoners were ‘arrested’ as they went about their day, taken to ‘prison’ and given uniforms and numbers. The guards also wore uniforms

Question 2

Zimbardo’s results

Answer 2

Initially, the guards tried to assert their authority and the prisoners resisted by sticking together. The prisoners then became more passive and obedient, while the guards invested nastier punishments. The experiment was abandoned early because some prisoners became very distressed.

Question 3

Zimbardo’s conclusion

Answer 3

Guards and prisoners adopted their social roles quickly. Zimbardo claims this shows that our social role can influence our behaviour- seemingly, well-balanced men became unpleasant and aggressive in the role of guard.
- Guards employed ‘divide and rule’ tactics by playing the prisoners off against each other
- Enforced rules and punish small misdemeanours

Question 4

Zimbardo’s experiment negatives

Answer 4

• In terms of ethics, some participants found the experience very distressing.
  -problem with observer bias, as Zimbardo ran the prison himself, and later admitted that he became too personally involved in the situation.
  -because it was an artificial environment, the results cannot really be generalised to real-life situations.
  -Study was stopped after 6 days instead of 14

Question 5

Zimbardo’s evaluation

Answer 5

The conclusion Zimbardo reached does not explain why only some of the participants acted according to their assigned roles.

Question 6

What was good about Zimbardo’s experiment

Answer 6

This was a controlled observation, so there was good control of variables.

Question 7

What is a comparison to Zimbardo’s experiment

Answer 7

Reichee and Haslam (2006) - The BBC prison study

Question 8

Reichee and Haslam evaluation

Answer 8

-findings showed the prisoners took control of the mock prison and subjected the guards to a campaign of harassment and disobedience
- social identity theory: guards failed to develop a shared social identity as a cohesive group but prisoners did.
-prisoners refused to accept the limits of their assigned role.

Question 9

Reichee and Haslam good qualities of experiment

Answer 9

• The ethics of the study were good- the participants were not
  deceived- they were able to give informed consent.
• Participants were protected by the ethics committee (had the power to stop the experiment at any time in order to protect the participants.)
• They were debriefed and offered counselling afterwards.

Question 10

Reichee and Haslam negatives

Answer 10

The guards were not as empowered as the guards in Zimbardo’s
group, who were actively encouraged to maintain order
- The study has been criticised for being made for TV- Many people
including Zimbardo, argued that elements of the study were
staged and the participants played up for the cameras.
- As this was an artificial situation, the results cannot be generalised
to real life.

Question 11

Reichee and Haslam results

Answer 11

After one was promoted, they become a much stronger group because they knew there was no more chances of promotion. The unequal system collapsed due to the unwillingness of the guards and the strength of the prisoner group. On day six, the prisoners rebelled and the participants decided to live in a democracy but this also collapsed due to tensions within the group.

Question 12

Reichee and Haslam method

Answer 12

This was a controlled observation in a mock prison, which was filmed for television. The participants were 15 male volunteers who had responded to an advert. They were randomly assigned to two groups- five were guards and 10 were prisoners. The prisoners knew that one of them, chosen at random, would become a guard within three days.

Question 13

Afffects on mental health in ázima bardos experiment

Answer 13

• Prisoners became subdued, depressed and anxious
• One prisoner had to be released after one day as he showed symptoms of
psychological disturbance.
• Two more were released on the fourth day
• One prisoner went on a hungry strike- this resulted in guards force feeding him and putting him in the ‘hole’

Question 14

Real World Application- Abu Ghraib

Answer 14

• From 2003- 2004, the US Army Military police personnel committed series human rights violations against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
• Prisoners were tortured, physically and sexually abused, routinely humiliated and some were murdered.

Question 15

+ Evaluation - Control of Zimbardo’s experiment

Answer 15

• Emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles of guards and prisoners
• Behaviour must have been due to the pressure of the situation as they were randomly assigned.
• Increases the internal validity of the study- different parts of the test gave consistent results

Question 16

• evaluation: Lack of realism

Answer 16

• Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argued that participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role.
- Based on stereotypes
- One of the guards claimed he based his role on a brutal character in the film ‘Cool Hand Luke’
- Prisoners rioted because they thought that’s what real prisoners did

Question 17

• Evaluation: Role of dispositional influences

Answer 17

accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour and minimising the role of personality factors.
• Only about a third of the guards behaved in a brutal manner
• Another third were keen on applying rules fairly and the rest actively
tried to help and support the prisoners
• The conclusion drawn that participants were conforming to social roles, could be over stated.