Conformity to social roles- Zimbardo

Question 1

The Stanford prison experiment

Answer 1

• Following reports of brutality by guards in prisons across America in the late 1960’s, Zimbardo and his colleagues wanted to answer this question- do prison guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities, or is it the situation that creates such behaviour?

Question 2

Procedure- who, what

Answer 2

• Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University.
• They advertised for students willing to volunteer and selected those who they deemed ‘emotionally stable’ after extensive psychological testing.
• The students were randomly assigned the roles of guards or prisoners.
• To increase the realism of the study, the ‘prisoners’ were arrested from their homes by the local police and were then delivered to the ‘prison’.
• They were blindfolded, strip-searched, deloused and issued a uniform and a number.

Question 3

Procedure- social roles

Answer 3

• The social roles of the prisoners and the guards were strictly divided. The prisoners daily routines were heavily regulated. There were 16 rules they had to follow, which were enforced by the guards who worked in shifts, three at a time. The prisoners names were never used, only their numbers.
• The guards, to underline their role, had their own uniform, complete with a wooden club, handcuffs, keys and mirror shades. They were told they had complete power over the prisoners, for instance even deciding when they could go to the toilet.

Question 4

Findings- pt.1

Answer 4

• After a slow start to the stimulation, the guards took up their roles with enthusiasm. Their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners’ psychological and physical health, and the study was stopped after 6 days instead of the intended 14.

Question 5

Findings- pt.2

Answer 5

• Within 2 days, the prisoners rebelled against their harsh treatment by the guards. They ripped their uniforms, and shouted and swore at the guards, who retaliated with fire extinguishers.
• The guards employed the ‘divide-and-rule’ tactics by playing the prisoners off against each other. They harassed the prisoners constantly, to remind them they were being monitored at all times .
• For example they conducted frequent headcounts, sometimes in the middle of the night, when the prisoners would stand in line and call out their numbers.
• The guards highlighted the difference in social roles by creating plenty of opportunities to enforce the rules and punish even the smallest misdemeanour.

Question 6

Findings- pt.3

Answer 6

• After their rebellion was put down, the prisoners became subdued, depressed and anxious.
• One prisoner was released on the first day as he showed signs of psychological disturbance. Two more were released on the 4th day. One prisoner went on a hunger strike. The guards attempted to force feed him and then punished him by putting him in ‘the hole’ (a tiny, dark close. Instead of being considered a hero, he was shunned by the other prisoners.
• The guards identified more and more closely with their role. Their behaviour became more brutal and aggressive, with some of them appearing to enjoy the power they had over the prisoners.

Question 7

Conclusions

Answer 7

• The simulation revealed the power of the situation to influence people’s behaviour. Guards, prisoners and researchers all conformed to their roles within the prison.
• These roles were taken on very easily by the participants- even volunteers who came in to perform certain functions (such as the ‘prison chaplain’) found themselves behaving as if they were in a prison rather than a psychological study.

Question 8

Evaluation- control

Answer 8

• A strength of the SPE is that Zimbardo and his colleagues had some control over variables. The most obvious example of this was the selection of the participants.
• Emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles of guard and prisoner. This was one way in which the researchers tried to rule out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings. If guards and prisoners behaved very differently, but those roles were only by chance, then their behaviour must have been due to the pressures of the situation.
• Having such control over variables is a strength because it increases the internal validity of the study. So we can be much more confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on behaviour.

Question 9

Evaluation- lack of realism pt.1

Answer 9

• Banuazizi and Mohavedi argued the participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role. Their performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards were supposed to behave.
• For example, one of the guards claimed he had based his role on a brutal character from the film Cool Hand Luke. This would also explain why the prisoners rioted- because that’s what they thought real prisoners did.

Question 10

Evaluation- lack of realism pt.2

Answer 10

• But Zimbardo pointed to evidence that the situation was very real to the participants. Quantitative data gathered during the procedure showed that 90% of the prisoners conversations were about prison life.
• ‘Prisoner 416’ expressed the view that the prison was a real one, but run by psychologists rather than the government. On balance, it seems that the situation was real to the participants, which gives the study a high degree of internal validity.

Question 11

Evaluation- role of dispositional influences

Answer 11

• Fromm accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour, and minimising the role of personality factors (dispositional influences).
• For example, only a minority of the guards (1/3) behaved in a brutal manner. Another third were keen on applying the rules fairly. The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners, sympathising with them and offering them cigarettes and reinstating privileges.
• This suggests that Zimbardo’s conclusion- that participants were conforming to social roles may be overstated. The differences in the guards’ behaviour indicate that they were able to exercise right and wrong choices, despite the situational pressures to conform to a role.

Question 12

Evaluation- ethical issues

Answer 12

• A major ethical issue arose because of Zimbardo’s dual roles in the study. For example, on one occasion a student who wanted to leave the study spoke to Zimbardo in his role as superintendent. The whole conversation was conducted on the basis that the student was a prisoner in a prison, asking to be ‘released’. Zimbardo responded to him as a superintendent worried about the running of his prison rather than as a researcher with responsibilities towards his participants.