Conformity To Social Roles- Zimbardo

Question 1

What is a social role?

Answer 1

Expected behaviours of one who occupies a given social position/status.

Question 2

What is obedience?

Answer 2

The extent to which one follows the commands of an authority figure.

Question 3

What was the aim of Zimbardo (1971)?

Answer 3

To investigate how readily people would conform to social roles in a stimulated environment.

Question 4

What was the method of Zimbardo (1971)?

Answer 4

Volunteer sample of 70 students, 24 of which were deemed mentally able to participate.
They were randomly assigned roles (‘guard’ or ‘prisoner’).
-Prisoners were chained and assigned numbers.
-Guards were given handcuffs and sunglasses.

Question 5

What were the results of Zimbardo (1971)?

Answer 5

-Identification occured quickly.
-Prisoners talked about prison life in 90% of their conversations, forgot about previous lives.
-Guards asserted dominance to the extent that prisoners defended guards against rebels.
-3 prisoners had to leave, it ended in 6 days (there were 14 planned days).

Question 6

What was the conclusion of Zimbardo (1971)?

Answer 6

Power of the situation will influence people’s conformity to social roles.

Question 7

What are strengths to Zimbardo (1971)?

Answer 7

+Controlled variables: rules out individual differences, increasing validity.

Question 8

What are weaknesses to Zimbardo (1971)?

Answer 8

-Lack of realism: one guard based his actions off of a movie character (Cool Hand Luke). Guards acted without fear of consequences. Prisoners are normally criminals.
-Dispositional factors: only a minority of guards acted brutally. Zimbardo was accused of overstating his conclusion.
-Ethical issues: deception, harm, inconsistency in right to withdraw.

Question 9

What is a real life application for Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 9

The Holocaust.