What were the aims of the Zimbardo study?
- Create a realistic prison simulation
- “How do men adapt to the novel and alien situation in which those called ‘prisoners’ lose their liberty, civil rights, and privacy…”
- “…while those called ‘guards’ gain power and social status?”
- Why alleged brutality and violence in American prisons?
- When can a role-playing simulation become so real that it becomes more than just a game?
How many participants were used?
• 25 Ps selected from an initial pool of 75
• Half Ps randomly assigned to guards (11), half as prisoners (10)
o – Some Ps dropped out early on or were excluded due to unusual test results
• Ps were male College students
Explain the ‘arrest’ of the participants?
- Ps arrested at their home (taken by surprise)
- Ps fingerprinted at the police station and left in isolation cell
- Blindfolded and transported to the “Stanford County Prison”
What happened to the ppts during the induction?
– Stripped naked
– Searched
– ‘De-loused’
– Issued a uniform, bedding and basic supplies
– ID picture taken and then taken to cell and told to remain silent
Where was the prison based?
- Basement corridor of Psychology Dept., Stanford University, U.S.A.
- 3 small cells made, complete with steel barred doors
- Only furniture was a bed in each cell
- Solitary confinement cell made from cupboard measuring 2 X 2 X 7 feet
- Several rooms in adjacent wing of building used as guards’ quarters, bedroom for warden and superintendent, and an interview room
What were the guards told during orientation?
- Critics argued that Zimbardo asked guards to be mean during the orientation meeting, they were instructed to be mean and forceful
- Told that aim was to simulate a prison environment, within limits of ethical considerations - told not to harm prisoners but also were made to ensure participants knew they were in charge and whatever they said goes.
- Their task was to “…maintain the reasonable degree of order within the prison necessary for its effective functioning.” (Zimbardo, 1975)
- Specifics of how this duty should be implemented were not specified
- Guards generally believed primary focus of interest was on prisoner behaviour
- Explicit and categorical prohibition against the use of violence
What is the difference in uniforms for guards and prisoners?
– khaki shirt, trousers, whistle, police night stick, reflective sunglasses (eye contact impossible)
• Prisoners:
– Loose fitting muslin smock, ID number on front and back, no underwear, chain and lock around one ankle, sandals, cap made from a nylon stocking
What is the significance of the uniforms?
Zimbardo thought that something as basic as uniforms carries a psychological significance. Uniforms can capture a sense of shared and collective identity
• In order to promote anonymity, identical uniforms given to each group
• Promotes perception of others as members of a group and lowers inhibitions (de-individuation)
How did the prisoners and guards behave during the study?
Zimbardo recounts how in the first 48 hours, the prisoners were cheeky and tried to push back against the regime. But the guards responded very strongly and harshly, and the prisoners were forced to accept the power of the guards.
Some guards enjoyed themselves so much that they signed up for unpaid shifts
Name some of the apparent guard sadism
- Guards retaliated strongly when prisoners rebelled
- Physical punishment
- Degraded prisoners
- Solitary confinement
- Tried to split the prisoners - tried to pit them against each other and get them to hate the prisoners that rebelled. They tried to get prisoners to snitch on one another and used degrading language. They harassed prisoners in terms of sexuality and bullied them in a range of ways
- Sometimes denied basic rights
Were all the guards brutal?
• Guards became more aggressive over time – every guard was abusive; about a third were ‘sadistic’ - verbal and physical aggression
The nicest guard would never intervene when Dave Eshelman was being harsh and sadistic, instead he would remove himself from the situation by volunteering to get things from another part of the complex. Social psychologists call this bystander apathy. E.g., people seeing an accident happen and instead of helping out.
How did the prisoners suffer?
Prisoners suffered a great degree of mental anguish, those playing the role of a prisoner broke out in psychosomatic rashes and other physical symptoms such as flare ups of eczema. They showed some signs of early phase depression.
When did the study stop and why?
Zimbardo argued that he got too sucked into his role of superintendent and didn’t have an objective view like an outsider would and see that what is going on is immoral. It took his fiancée to see that it was wrong, she exploded which led him to shut down the study.
A halt called after only 6 days - it had originally been planned to last 2 weeks
What are the psychological aspects of time?
- Institutionalisation breaks up continuity of life
- Apparent circularity of time
- People overreact to minor stimuli and fail to plan for major events
One of the reasons we see reoffenders in prison is because instead of planning for life afterwards, they concentrate on the present. They focus on surviving in prison rather than turning their life around and avoid being a criminal for the rest of their life.
Why was anonymity an important factor in what happened in SPE?
• “…conditions that reduce a person’s sense of uniqueness, that minimize individuality, are the wellsprings of antisocial behaviors…” (Zimbardo, 1975)
• Anonymity in prisons:-
– Uniforms, numbers, standard hair cuts, limits on personal property and personalising cells
– Limited possessions become things to fight for
– The ‘ecology of de-humanisation’ – prison design – minimising privacy, mass eating, mass exercise
Phones have become part of people due to the connected social media world we live in and so taking it away is eating away at your self-concept and identity
What criticisms do Banuazizi & Movahedi (1975) have for SPE?
They question:
– Realism (ecological validity)? - they argue that it was just roleplay and surely the prisoners and guards knew that they were in a study, so they could have treated it like a game.
– Phenomenological significance? - The perceived reality was not as all-encompassing as it would be for real prisoners.
– Zimbardo’s active role as superintendent - why was he so involved (but does this negate from the study?
– Alternative explanation - suggest that people knew it wasn’t real. This is what David Eshelman suggested, he claimed that he was just playing a role which is why he acted so cruel – he was trying to be a movie character. But perhaps he was simply giving an explanation to exonerate him for the way he acted.
Was the reality in SPE encompassing enough?
Erich Fromm
He argues that it’s too far away from the real experiences of prisoners and guards, so we don’t learn much from it. He makes a similar argument about both the Milgram and Zimbardo studies. Since some of the guards acted differently e.g., some more sadistic than others it shows that most of us are not evil.
How did Reicher & Haslam (2006) criticise SPE?
– Zimbardo’s leadership: they felt that they didn’t buy Zimbardo’s arguments and felt his leadership is what generated the findings.
– What about rebellion? They argued they ignored rebellion; some participants stood up to authority
– Social Identity Theory: they argue that the behaviour of prisoners and guards can be explained by this. It relates to whether the prisoners and guards feel that they are part of a group and share that identity.
– The role account is dangerous: this promotes the idea that situations have total power when evil things occur which completely wipes out individuality and responsibility – this is alarming.
– Failure to achieve a common social identity
Tell me about the bbq study by Reicher and Haslam (2006)
They wanted to conduct a similar prison experiment with the BBC conducted in 2001.
The BBC got involved with selecting ppts which is alarming since they might have been chosen because they’re going to be interesting on TV.
In the BBC prison study, the prisoners overthrew the regime of the guards, and the prisoners took control of the prison - a very different finding to Zimbardo. However, should we be sceptical of the BBC study? It is not free from flaws and so it cannot completely refute the Zimbardo study. Because of ethical considerations nobody properly replicated the study.
The prisoners used in the study were former criminals who served time in prison, so they knew how to serve time in prison, survive and give the guards a hard time.
Explain what Zimbardo, Maslach & Haney (2000) argued?
- Situational power in novel settings - situational forces are particularly powerful when individuals find themselves in a situation that is unusual
- Role playing - even roleplaying can create unpleasant situations under certain circumstances and reality can become blurred
- Good people in “total situations” - these are situations that are so powerful that not only do they push people into behaving a certain way, but they also create a version of reality that people can buy into. If they accept that version of reality, it makes evil unpleasant behaviour more palatable and acceptable.
What happened with the U.S. Air Force Academy training (named SERE)?
It’s a programme where they trained air force pilots (men and women) to be strong if they were captured by the enemy and faced with torture and persecution by the enemy. This training programme included role-play e.g., the male pilots found themselves having to role-play being sexually abusive to the female trainees. A number of the female trainees dropped out of the air force as a result of taking part in the programme because it became so real that they were left with PTSD. This illustrates the idea of role-playing causing the boundary of reality to become blurred as Zimbardo, Maslach & Haney (2000) suggested.
What is the wider relevance and impact of SPE?
- Psychologists need to be advocates of social change Zimbardo suggests social psychologists shouldn’t just put out research but actually use the findings to advocate social change
- Prisons are places that demean humanity; imprisonment should be used more sparingly (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998) it’s a punishment but doesn’t rehabilitate people so we should use it more sparingly.
- Z’s testimony led to US ruling not to house juveniles with adult prisoners
- The study has been presented to a great many civic, judicial, military, and law enforcement groups (see Newton & Zimbardo, 1975; Pogash, 1976).
- Its role-playing procedures have been used with mental health staff (see Orlando, 1973). See also Goffman (1961) argues that there are several institutions which erode and destroy an individual’s identity e.g., mental hospitals. Interestingly he also suggests that private schools also erode an individual’s identity.
