5: Conformity to Social Roles (Zimbardo)

Question 1

Who did research into Conformity to Social Roles?

Answer 1

Zimbardo (1973)

Question 2

What is meant by social roles?

Answer 2

The behaviours expected from an individual who occupies a given social position or status.
Examples of social roles or ‘parts’ people play in society include parent, child, teacher, student, manager etc.
In playing the part of a manager, an individual may be expected to conform to the role of being confident and showing authority, and in playing the part of a parent an individual may be expected to conform to the role of being caring, for example.

Question 3

Outline Research into Conformity to Social Roles
- aim

Answer 3

Zimbardo (1973) aimed to test whether ordinary people would conform to the social roles of prison guard and prisoner in a mock prison as part of the ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’ (SPE)

Question 4

Outline Research into Conformity to Social Roles
- procedure

Answer 4

• Zimbardo advertised for students to take part (volunteer sampling) and, after screening them, selected the 24 most ‘emotionally stable’ who were randomly assigned (random allocation) to the role of either prisoner or guard
• Prisoners unexpectedly arrested at home by local police and on entry to the mock prison were blindfolded, strip searched, deloused, given a prisoner uniform and a number
• Social role of prisoners was clearly defined as they were given 16 rules to follow (e.g. addressing the guards as ‘Mr Correctional Officer’)
• To underline their social role, guards were given uniforms, wooden clubs, handcuffs, keys and wore reflective sunglasses (to prevent eye contact).
• Guards told the had complete power over the prisoners, including deciding when they could go to the toilet
• Guards referred to the prisoners by their numbers
• Zimbardo took on the role of Prison Superintendent
• Study was planned to last for 2 weeks

Question 5

Outline Research into Conformity to Social Roles
- findings

Answer 5

• Guards grew increasingly abusive towards the prisoners (eg. waking them in the night and forcing them to clean toilets w their bare hands)
• Within two days the prisoners rebelled against the harsh treatment by ripping their uniforms and shouting/swearing at the guards - the guards retaliated with fire extinguishers
• After the rebellion was put down, the prisoners became subdued. depressed and anxious
• 5 prisoners were allowed to leave early due to their extreme reactions (crying, rage, anxiety)
• Study terminated after only 6 days
• Study showed that both guards and prisoners confirmed to their social roles
• All participants appeared to lose their sense of personal identity, identifying instead with the social role they were given
• The guards became increasingly aggressive and the prisoners became increasingly passive and accepting of their fate

Question 6

Outline Research into Conformity to Social Roles
- conclusion

Answer 6

It was concluded that social roles do have a strong influence over behaviour

Question 7

Evaluate Research into Conformity to Social Roles
- Strengths

Answer 7

P: High degree of control
E: Zimbardo had control over who was selected (only ‘emotionally stable’ participants)
E: For example, by randomly allocating roles Z was able to rule out individual differences as an explanation because if guards and prisoners behaved very differently, this must have been due to the pressures of the situation rather than their personalities
L: the study had high internal validity

P: May have practical applications
E: Has helped to highlight the ways in which ordinary, emotionally stable people can behave extremely differently in the right social context, which could be used to help prevent brutality in other prison-like contexts
E: Eg, similar social pressures may have played a role in the brutality shown in Abu Ghraib prison
L: May help to prevent future brutality by having a greater awareness of the issues raised

Question 8

Evaluate Research into Conformity to Social Roles
- Limitations

Answer 8

P: One problem with Zimbardo’s conclusion that we do conform to social roles comes from the finding that not all of the guards were sadistic
E: Some of them were ‘good guards’
E: For example, these ‘good guards’ did not harass the prisoners and even did small favours for them
L: Suggests the guards chose how to behave rather than blindly conforming to social roles

P: Suffered demand characteristics
E: The ppts may have simply been ‘play acting’
E: For example, when researchers presented details of the SPE to a group of students who had never heard of it before, they all correctly guessed that ordinary people would start to act like real prisoners and guards. One of the more sadistic guards even claimed he based his role on a brutal character from ‘Cool Hand Luke’
L: reduced the internal validity of the research

P: Evidence against the SPE comes from a replication conduction for the BBC: Reicher and Haslam (2006)
E: Found that it was the prisoners, not the guards, who eventually took control of the mock prison and subjected the guards to a campaign of harassment
E: Concluded that the prisoners developed a shared social identity which allowed them to act with a shared purpose whilst the guards did not (social identity theory)
L: Suggests we don’t automatically conform to social roles and other factors (such as developing a shared group identity) play a part too

P: Criticism is that it raised major ethical issues
E: although there was no deception involved and ppts did give consent, it is questionable whether ppts were fully aware of the harm they might suffer
E: For example, Zimbardo acknowledges that the study should have been stopped earlier as some of the ppts were experiencing severe emotional distress (lack of protection from harm) and many argue that this harm should have been anticipated
L: May go against the ethical code of conduct
E: However, Zimbardo did carry out debriefing sessions for many years afterwards and concluded there were no lasting effects