Conformity to social rules Flashcards
(15 cards)
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study
To investigate how easily people conform to social roles in a simulated prison environment and why “good people do bad things.”
What was the Stanford prison experiment conduced
The basement of Stanford university’s psychology building
How were participants assigned roles
Randomly assigned as either guards or prisoners
How was the power dynamic reinforced
Guards had uniforms, handcuffs and sunglasses; prisoners were only referred to by numbers
Were participants allowed to leave
No, only prisoners who showed extreme distress were released
What ethical guidelines was followed to prevent complete overrule
No physical violence was permitted
(next card is Findings)
How quickly did participants adapt to their roles
Very quickly, both guards and prisoners internalised their roles
How did guards behave
They became aggressive, tormented prisoners and enjoyed their power
How did the prisoners react
They conformed, only talked about prison life, united on each other and defended guards
What did this suggest about social roles
Social roles became increasingly internalised
A03 Evaluation
Real life applications
✅ Point: One strength of Zimbardo’s study is that it led to real-world changes in prison systems.
✅ Evidence: After the study, U.S. prisons stopped placing young offenders with adult criminals to prevent them from becoming violent. This shows that the study had an impact on how prisons are run.
✅ Explain: The findings support the idea that social roles influence behavior, meaning people can behave cruelly when given power. This knowledge helped change policies to prevent similar abuses.
✅ Counterpoint (Weakness): However, real-life prisons differ from Zimbardo’s study. In real prisons, inmates are there long-term, whereas in the study, participants only spent a few days in their roles. This means the study lacks ecological validity because it may not fully represent real prison behavior.
✅ Link: Despite this, the study’s influence on prison reform shows that it has important real-world applications.
A03 Evaluation
Lacks ecological validity ❌
❌ Point: The study may not reflect real-life behavior.
❌ Evidence: Some guards admitted they were acting, rather than genuinely conforming to their roles. One said he copied a guard from the film Cool Hand Luke.
❌ Explain: This suggests that some participants behaved the way they thought Zimbardo wanted them to (demand characteristics), rather than naturally adopting their roles. If they were acting, this reduces the internal validity of the study because the behavior was not fully genuine. It also means the study may have suffered from experimenter bias, as Zimbardo himself took part in the study and may have unintentionally influenced participants.
❌Counterpoint: However, prisoners showed real distress, with some crying and begging to leave. If they were only acting, they wouldn’t have experienced such strong emotional reactions. This suggests that some behaviors were genuine and that situational factors did influence behavior. The study also supports the concept of deindividuation, where people lose their sense of personal identity in a group, which may explain why the guards became increasingly aggressive.
❌ Link: While demand characteristics may have played a role, the extreme emotional responses suggest that situational factors can strongly influence behavior, making the findings still valuable.
A03 Evaluation
Ethical issues
❌ Point: A major weakness of Zimbardo’s study is that it was highly unethical.
❌ Evidence: Some participants suffered extreme psychological distress. One prisoner had a breakdown and had to be released on the first day, while others cried uncontrollably.
❌ Explain: This means the study broke ethical guidelines, as participants were not protected from harm. Zimbardo also failed to stop the experiment early enough, even though participants were clearly suffering.
❌ Counterpoint (Strength): However, Zimbardo fully debriefed the participants afterward, and most said they had no long-term negative effects. Additionally, this study led to stricter ethical guidelines in psychology, meaning future research became safer.
❌ Link: While the study was unethical, it contributed to better research practices and understanding of conformity to social roles.
Debrief findings
✅ Zimbardo found that participants quickly conformed to their assigned social roles.
✅ Guards became aggressive, enforcing strict rules, humiliating prisoners, and using psychological punishment.
✅ Prisoners became passive and submissive, following the guards’ orders without resistance. Some even sided with the guards against other prisoners.
✅ Many prisoners showed emotional distress. One had a breakdown and was released within 24 hours, and two more were released soon after.
✅ The study was stopped after six days instead of the planned two weeks because of the extreme psychological effects.
✅ The findings support the idea of deindividuation, where people lose their personal identity and conform to a group role
