Zimbardo And Confomity To Social Roles

Question 1

Zimbardos study

Answer 1

24 American male undergraduate students
Randomly issued the role of a guard or a prisoner
Wore uniform and prisoners only referred to as assigned numbers
Guards given props and worked 8 hr shifts

Question 2

Findings

Answer 2

Identification occurred fast
Guards harassed and tormented prisoners
Prisoners only spoke about prison issues
Their social roles became increasingly internalised

Question 3

AO3

Answer 3

Strength 1: real life application as they changed the way US prisons r run. Young prisoners are no longer kept with adult prisoners to prevent bad behaviour perpetuating and there is constant surveillance on prisoners

Strength 2: participants were debriefed about aims and results of the study. Important as meets BPS ethical guidelines of deception and informed consent had been breached. Meant it was more ethically acceptable.

Limitation: lacks ecological validity as they suffered from demand characteristics as they knew they were participating in a study and so may have changed their behaviour. May want to please experimented as may assume that’s what they want