4.1.1 Zimbardo - Conformity

Question 1

What year was Zimbardo’s experiment conducted

Answer 1

1973

Question 2

What is the name of the experiment conducted by Zimbardo

Answer 2

The Stanford prison experiment

Question 3

What was the aim of the Stanford prison experiment

Answer 3

Zimbardo was interested in finding out if the brutality reported by guards in US prisons was as a result of sadistic personality’s or circumstance

Question 4

What was the method behind Zimbardo’s experiment

Answer 4

Zimbardos prison experiment began by volunteer participants responding to a poster requesting stanford students for a prison based study. The volunteers where then screened for pre existing mental health problems then randomly assigned to a role of prisoner of guard. Prisoners where arrested In the regular way which they did not expect before being placed into the mock prison where they where then observed. Prisoners where given matching outfits and number and guards where give a uniform and sunglasses.

Question 5

What where the results of Zimbardos expirment

Answer 5

Zimbardo found that the guards tried to assert their dominance onto the prisoners to begin with however the prisoners stayed together and resisted. However the guards invented more cruel methods of punishment while the prisoners became more passive. This caused the experiment to end after just 6 days due to the suffering inflicted on the prisoners

Question 6

What was the conclusion of Zimbaredo’s experiment

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

What are some criticisms of Zimbardos experiment

Answer 7

• It does not have ecological validity as the results cannot really be replicated in the real world
• ethically this experiment was wrong as some of the participants had trauma and where extremely distressed by the experience
• the experiment was biased as Zimbardo acted as a person within the experiment and later admitted he became to committed to the role
• the conclusion of zimbardo does not explain why only some of the participants conformed to their role
• conducted a similar expirment and found different results (UK prison)

Question 8

What a are some positives of Zimbardo’s experiment

Answer 8

• participants were screened for emotional stability and mental health issues, meaning that any behaviours during the experiment were as a result of social roles rather than extraneous variables.
• prisoner participants acted as if the prison were real This shows that the experiment did replicate the social roles of prisons which suggests high internal validity.

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