Zimbardo

Question 1

Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 1

Philip Zimbardo 1970s

Question 2

Aim of the SPE

Answer 2

To find out: Do guards mistreat prisoners because of their personality or their role?

Question 3

Social Roles

Answer 3

“The parts people play as members of various social groups”

Question 4

Zimbardo’s conclusion of his study

Answer 4

He claimed that social roles have a strong influence on individuals’ behaviour.

Question 5

1/3

Answer 5

Amount of guards that became brutal and sadistic.
Amount of guards that helped prisoners.
Amount of guards that didn’t participate in degrading behaviour towards prisoners.

Question 6

What happened to the prisoners?

Answer 6

They became submissive and withdrawn.

Question 7

6 days

Answer 7

The amount of time the experiment actually lasted for.

Question 8

2 weeks

Answer 8

The amount of time the experiment should have lasted for.

Question 9

What were the two rules that the guards needed to follow?

Answer 9

No physical violence/abuse and no solitary confinement of prisoners for over 1 hour.

Question 10

What did Zimbardo have control over?

Answer 10

Key variables

Question 11

Selection of participants

Answer 11

Zimbardo selected emotionally stable participants who were randomly assigned the role of guard or prisoner.

Question 12

How did random assignment of roles improve the experiment?

Answer 12

It ruled out individual personality differences as an explanation of their findings eg. Introverts and extroverts.

Question 13

Internal Validity

Answer 13

The control over key variables increased the internal validity of the experiment. Because of this we are more confident in the conclusions about the influence of roles on conformity.

Question 14

Limitation to Zimbardo’s study

Answer 14

Lack of realism

Question 15

Ali Banuazizi and Siamak Movahedi (1975)

Answer 15

Stated that the participants were just play-acting and not conforming. Believed that the prisoners and guards based their performance on stereotypes. This could be an explanation as to why the prisoners rioted. Therefore, the study tells us little about conformity in real life.

Question 16

Counterpoint to lack of realism

Answer 16

Mark McDermott (2019) argued that the participants did behave as if they were in a real prison.

Question 17

90%

Answer 17

Amount of prisoners MM claimed whose conversations were about prison life.

Question 18

Prisoner 416

Answer 18

Explained that he believed the prison was a real one run by psychologists and not by the government.

Question 19

Fromm (1973)

Answer 19

Claimed that Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour. He may have only looked at statistics that supported his hypothesis. Zimbardo overstated his view that SPE participants were conforming to their roles and minimised influence of dispositional factors such as personality.