Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

Investigate how readily people conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulates real life prison

Question 2

What was the sample

Answer 2

21 male uni students randomly assigned to guard/prisoner

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

• Prisoners arrested at home, taken to prison (uniform of smock dress/flip flops/stocking cap)
• Guards told to set up prison, given uniform/sunglasses
• Guards told to keep order but given no specific rules

Question 4

Ethics (evaluation)

Answer 4

• No fully informed consent
• Believed they couldn’t remove themselves
• Deception
• Not protected from harm

Question 5

Culture bias (evaluation)

Answer 5

• Limited cross culturally in how we conform to social roles
• Conducted in USA, results do not apply to collectivist cultures
• Limited population validity

Question 6

Findings

Answer 6

• Guards behaved in a brutal/sadistic manner
• Prisoners adopted prisoner-like behaviour (told tales on each other to guards)
• Had to be stopped after 6 days, real risk of prisoners being harmed
• One prisoner had to be released after 36 hrs due to uncontrollable screaming/emotional disorders

Question 7

Gender bias (evaluation)

Answer 7

All male sample: difficult to generalise findings

Question 8

Nomothetic (evaluation)

Answer 8

• Difficulty isolating variables
• Overlooks individual differences (not all pps conformed to their roles in the same way)