zimbardo’s research AO3

Question 1

evaluation of zimbardo’s research - control (strength)

Answer 1

• zimbardo and his colleagues had control over key variables.
• emotionally-stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles of guard and prisoner. this was one way in which the researchers ruled out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings. if guards and prisoners behaved very differently but were in those roles only by chance, then their behaviour must have been due to the role itself.
• this degree of control over variables increased the internal validity of the study, so we can be much more confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on conformity.

Question 2

evaluation of zimbardo’s research - lack of realism (limitation)

Answer 2

• that it did not have the realism of a true prison.
• banuazizi and movahedi argued the participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role. participants’ performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are 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 suggests that the findings of the SPE tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons.

Question 3

evaluation of zimbardo’s research - lack of realism (COUNTERPOINT)

Answer 3

• however, mcdermott argues that the participants did behave as if the prison was real to them.
• for example, 90% of the prisoners’ conversations were about prison life. amongst themselves, they discussed how it was impossible to leave the SPE before their ‘sentences’ were over. ‘prisoner 416’ later explained how he believed the prison was a real one, but run by psychologists rather than the government.
• this suggests that the SPE did replicate the social roles of prisoners and guards in a real prison, giving the study a high degree of internal validity.