Zimbardo And The SPE

Question 1

What was zimbardos aim

Answer 1

To see if conformity was due to social roles

Question 2

Describe the SPE set up

Answer 2

Mock prison in university basement
21 male students, randomly assigned role of guard or prisoners
Wore uniforms and had numbers to deindividualise

Question 3

What happened in the SPE

Answer 3

Guards played prisoners off against each other
Became sadistic and cruel
Degraded prisoners
Prisoners initially rebelled but then became anxious and depressed. Some developed psychological disturbance
Experiment ends 10 days early

Question 4

What was a strength of zimbardos research

Answer 4

Control over key variables

Question 5

What was a limitation of zimbardos research

Answer 5

No realism - therefore prisoners were acting like stereotypes so doesn’t explain conformity

Exaggeration of social roles - only 1/3 were brutal, another third fair and another third on prisoners side

Question 6

What was a huge issue with the experiment

Answer 6

Ethics
Denied right to withdraw
Huge deception
Not humane / sadistic

Question 7

What was the investigator bias in the SPE

Answer 7

Zimbardo was assigned the role of prison warden and became too immersed in the role