Zimbardos Conformity to Social Roles

Question 1

Who investigated conformity to social roles, what was their aim and sample?

Answer 1

Zimbardo investigated how freely people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role playing exercise that recreated prison life using a volunteer sample of 24 emotionally stable US male uni students.

Question 2

What was Zimbardos procedure for his research investigating conformity to social roles?

Answer 2

• basement of psyc department at stanford uni was converted to a mock prison
• volunteers randomly allocated to role of prisoner or guard
• prisoners were arrested at homes w out prior knowledge, searched and dressed in smock uniforms and referred to as numbers (deindividualisation)
• prisoners were then placed in cells, regular routine of meal times and visiting times was established aswell as a parole and disciplinary board
• guards were given uniforms, night stick and mirrored glasses, they were instructed to keep prisoners under control w out violence
• uniforms created a loss of personal identity, encouraging ppts to conform to social role
• Zimbardo took on the role as superintendent (demand characteristics), if a prisoner wanted to leave they had to go through a parole process (ethical issues - right to withdraw)

Question 3

What was Zimbardos findings for his research investigating conformity to social roles?

Answer 3

• within a day prisoners rebelled + ripped off their numbers and the guards responded by locking them in cells + confiscating blankets
• as exp went on the punishments by guards worsened, prisoners were humiliated and derived of sleep
• identification of prisoners was noticeable as they referred to themselves and eachother by their numbers
• prisoners became subdued and depressed, 3 prisoners released early due to showing symptoms of psychological disturbance
• role play intended to run for 2 weeks but called off after 6 days

Question 4

What did Zimbardo conclude for his research investigating conformity to social roles?

Answer 4

• guards, prisoners and researchers conformed to their social role within prison
• social roles have extraordinary power over indv, making even the most well adjusted indv capable of extreme brutality towards others

Question 5

What are the three AO3 points to evaluate conformity to social roles?

Answer 5

• high control over extraneous variables
• ethical issues
• demand characteristics