Social Roles - The parts that people play as members of various social groups e.g. mother, teacher, friend, wife

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Aim - To investigate whether people will conform to a social role given to them in a role playing situation in an institution

Procedure:

• Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford university

• They advertised for student volunteers – those who seemed the most emotionally stable were selected. Students were then randomly assigned the role of prisoner or guard

• Prisoners were arrested in their homes and taken to the mock prison bound and blindfolded.

• Prisoners and guards were given very distinct roles. Prisoners = 16 strict rules to follow which had to be enforced by the guards; their names weren’t used and were given numbers. Guards = given a uniform consisting of wooden club, cuffs, keys and mirrored glasses; told they had complete power in the prison, e.g. they could decide when the prisoners go to the toilet

Findings:

• The study was stopped after 6 days rather than finishing after the full 14 days. The guard’s behaviour became very threatening to the prisoners psychological and physical health

• After 2 days, the prisoners rebelled against the guard’s treatment – ripping their uniform, shouting and swearing at guards. Guards retailed with fire extinguishers

• Guards played the prisoners off each other, harassed them, carried out frequent head counts, used punishment.

• Prisoners became very subdued after rebellion was overruled – one prisoner had to leave after day one due to apparent psychological disturbance, two more were released day four, one prisoner went on hunger strike and the guards reacted by force feeding the prisoner and locking him in a cupboard

Conclusion - There is strong situational influence on how people behave. The guards and prisoners both conformed to their social roles in the prison experiment – it happened easily and quickly. Everyone behaved as if they were in an actual prison rather than a psychological experiment

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Evaluation of Zimbardo

Strengths:

- Internal validity – prison guards were speaking as if they were guards even when they were on their own

 - Real life application – the findings from Zimbardo’s research can be used to explain real life scenarios, e.g. Abu Ghraib

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Limitations:

 - Artificial environment/lab study – The prison was simulated so it could be argued that the guards/prisoners were performing for Zimbardo

 - Gender bias – only men were used in this study – we cannot assume that women would conform to the roles of the guards and prisoners in the same way

 - Culture bias – Americans = individualist and are  centred around individual desires. Collectivist cultures are focused on family/social groups are therefore more likely to conform to social roles.

 - Participant variables -  personality traits could have influenced how the participants behaved, not simply the social context. The prisoners may have been more introverted and the guards may have been more extroverted

 - Ethical issues – serious psychological and physical effects – no protection from harm or clear rights to withdraw