Social Influence - Conformity To Social Roles (Zimbardo) Flashcards
What are social roles?
The ‘parts’ people play as members of various social groups e.g. parent, child. They are accompanied by expectations we & others have of what is the appropriate behaviour from each role e.g. caring, obedient
What are situational variables?
Features of an environment that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
What are dispositional variables?
Personal characteristics that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
Who did a study into social roles?
Zimbardo
What were the aims of Zimbardo’s research into social roles?
To investigate the extent to which people would conform to the roles of guard & prisoner in a role-playing simulation of prison life
To test the situational vs Dispositional hypothesis that saw prison violence as either due to the sadistic personalities of guards & prisoners or to the brutal conditions of the prison environment
What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s research into social roles?
175 male university student (volunteers)
21 picked as the most emotional & physically stable and with no criminal record were picked
10 guards & 11 prisoners - randomly selected
Basement of Stanford uni psych department was turned into a mock prison
Prisoners were arrested at their homes then fingerprinted, stripped & deloused, dehumanised (referred by numbers) and made to wear nylon caps (simulate baldness), numbered smocks & chain around the ankle
Guards wore khaki uniforms, reflective sunglasses, and were issued with truncheons, handcuffs & keys, Zimbardo played the role of the superintendent
The study was meant to last for 2 weeks
What were the findings of Zimbardo’s research into social roles?
Both guards & prisoners settled into their roles very fast. Initially, the prisoners rebelled but that crushed. Over time the guards became more sadistic & the prisoners became more submissive & unquestionng of the guards’ actions. The prisoners started to deindividualise themselebes by referring to eachother by their numbers.
After 36 hours one prisoner was released due to crying & fits of rage, three more prisoners developed the same symptoms & a 5th developed a psychosomatic rash
The study ran for 6 days when Zimbardo realised the harm he was causing and the increasingly aggressive nature of the guard’s behaviour, guards were upset & the prisoners were happy
In later interviews both roles said they were surprised at the uncharacteristic behaviour they had shown
What were the conclusions of Zimbardo’s research into social roles?
The situational hypothesis is favoured over the dispositional one.
Both guards & the prisoners conformed to their social roles within the prison & demonstrated social roles gained from media sources e.g. films
What are some strengths of Zimbardo’s research into social roles?
Control -> He exhibited control in many ways e.g. selection of participants to rule out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings which increases internal validity
What are some limitations of Zimbardo’s research into social roles?
Role of dispositional influences -> Fromm accused Zimbardo of exaggerating situational influences on the behaviour of the participants as only a 1/3 of guards exhibited brutal behaviour so it suggests that Zimbardo’s conclusion is over exaggerated
Ethical issues -> Zimbardo’s role of superintendent was unethical as he spoke to many prisoners in his role & was more concerned about his study than the wellbeing of his participants (researcher bias)
Lack of research support -> Reicher & Haslam did a partial replication of the study (BBC prison study) & found that the prisoners took control of the mock prison & harassed & disobeyed the guards due to them lacking to form a shared identity but the prisoners did -> little internal validity
