Social Influence

Question 1

Social Role

Answer 1

A set of perceived expected behaviours for a given situation or context

Question 2

Identification

Answer 2

People want to be associated with a particular social role so align their behaviour with their perception of the role

Question 3

Zimbardo’s Aim

Answer 3

To investigate the extent to which people would conform to the social toles of guard and prisoner in an artificial prison setting

Question 4

Zimbardo’s Procedure

Answer 4

21 male university students who responded to newspaper advert were paid to take part in the study (they were chosen based on mental and physical health). Were placed into a prison setting and assigned the role of either a prisoner or a guard.
Prisoner - Were made to wear identical clothing and caps (to pose as shaved heads)
Guards - Were given reflective sunglasses and batons, they were told not to be violent.

Question 5

Zimbardo - Findings

Answer 5

The nature of the encounters between the guards and prisoners tended to be negative, hostile and insulting. The prisoners organised a mass revolt on the second day about the conditions. Punishments (implemented through the guards) took the form of loss of privileges. The experiment ended after 6 days and the guards seemed distressed and the prisoners were relieved.

Question 6

Zimbardo - Criticisms

Answer 6

1. Zimbardo’s study was ethically immoral and had the be stopped six days early.
2. Participants experienced PTSD and some mental issues post experiment.
3. Was a Lab experiment so we cannot take the findings of the study and apply it fully to real like experiences. - HOWEVER has some ecological validity due to the way Zimbardo had them arrested.
4. Unrepresentative sample as the sample size were all young white males who were attending university

Question 7

Reicher and Haslam - BBC Prison Study

Answer 7

Their findings were opposite of Zimbardo’s. They rejected Zimbardo’s claims.