Conformitiy To Social Roles

Question 1

Who conducted this research

Answer 1

Zimbardo - Stanford prison experiment

Question 2

What was the aim of the Stanford prion experiemnt

Answer 2

To investigate how people would conform to the social roles in a stimulated environment, and specifically to identify why good people do bad things

Question 3

Whats the procedure of the Stanford prison experiment

Answer 3

24 while American males volunteered to participate in this study, who were all emotionally stable before the experiment.
Was located in a mock prison, under the Stanford university where they were randomly assigned 2 roles
1- guard, and they were given a uniform
2- prisoner, stripped and given a loose smock
No physical violence was allowed, but the guards were allowed to control the prisoners behaviour.
The procedure lasted 6 days instead of the set 14

Question 4

What are the findings from the Stanford prison experiment

Answer 4

Identification occurred very fast as both the prisoners and guards adopted to their parts in a short amount of time.
After 2 days, several prisoners experienced symptoms of disturbance, some cried uncontrollably, while others became extremely withdrawn.
As time went on, they became more anxious and depressed.

Question 5

Strength of this study

Answer 5

P- real life applications
E- this study has changed the way us prisons are run. Such as young prisoners aren’t kept with adult prisoners, cells as aren’t under constant supervision to try and limit the psychological effects that occured to the prisons in the Stanford prison experiment.

P-high internal validity
E- the environment was highly controlled, they were randomly assigned a role, reducing individual differences that behaviour changes was due to the situation and not personality.
E- strengthens the study as situational factors can strongly influence behaviour

Question 6

Limitation of the study

Answer 6

P- lack of population validity
E- they only used male college students (American) and middle class. This couldn’t accurately represent how other people from different backgrounds or ages would respond to this situation
E- can’t generalise findings

P- ethical issues
E- participants suffered high levels of psychological distress, therefore zimbrado failed to protect the particpants from, harm. It worsens the situation that he ws in the prison observations and didnt intervine when the harm escalated and this shows a lack of safe-guarding.
E- zimboardo harmed his particpants