Zimbardos Social Roles

Question 1

What are social roles

Answer 1

The parts that people play in various social groups which often come with expectations of how you should act and can change depending on the social situation

Question 2

Aims

Answer 2

To see if people do bad things because of their personality or because it was their social role

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

-21 male American volunteers
-$15 a day
-Randomly assigned to the role of guard or prisoner
-Prisoners made to wear smocks and caps to cover their hair as well as being identified via numbers created de-individuation (loss of identity)
-Prisoners spent 23 hours a day in their cell
- Guards were given uniforms with clubs, handcuffs and mirror shades to hide their eyes
-PP were encouraged to conform to social roles through uniforms and instructions

Question 4

Findings

Answer 4

Day 2 - prisoners rebelled by ripping uniforms and swearing at guards and then guards retaliating with fire extinguishers
-guards continuously harassed prisoners by doing late night head counts and putting them against each other, subduing the prisoners and causing them to become depressed and anxious. One prisoner was released due to psychological disturbance
Day 4 - 2 more prisoners are released and a prisoner goes on hunger strike, guards try to force feed him and then he’s put in a cupboard as punishment
Day 6 - Guards behaviour became worryingly violent and the experiment was shut down 8 day early

Question 5

Conclusions

Answer 5

Social roles have a strong influence on a person’s behaviour. Guards became brutal and prisoners submissive

Question 6

Contradicting research

Answer 6

-BBC replication experiment
-Prisoners rebelled against their social roles and rioted the prison
-This is due to prisoners forming a shared identity and the guards did not

-Contradicts Zimbardo’s conclusions that people are more likely to conform to social roles society has placed on them

• -reliability

Question 7

Individual differences

Answer 7

-1/3 of guards were physically violent however, another 1/3 sympathized with the prisoners and smuggled them cigarettes

-Doesn’t account for other dispositional factors like personality

• -generalisability

Question 8

Lack of demand characteristics

Answer 8

-After 2 days, prisoners stopped referring to their life outside of the study, showing how they were actually emersed in their social roles

-Shows internalization of social roles, not pretending to conform for the sake of the study

• +IV

Question 9

Ethical implications

Answer 9

-Some prisoners were released early due to signs of mental instability

-Not approved by modern BPS

-Can’t be replicated