T3: Lecture 7

Question 1

When Zimbardo initiated guards what type of language did he use and what was the effect of this?

Answer 1

He used the terms ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘they’ which created a different
-Exhortions of control and creating fear in prisoners encouraged toxic behaviour in guards

Question 2

What were the three distinct phases of the experiment?

Answer 2

1. Settling in period
2. Guards took authoritative positions more seriously
3. Guards become galvinised

Question 3

What happened in the ‘settling in period’?

Answer 3

• Guards and prisoners were not fully in their roles
• Guards appeared awkward/uncomfortable in the role
• Prisoners didn’t take it seriously, made fun of the guards

Question 4

What happened in the ‘guards took positions more seriously’ phase?

Answer 4

• Participants put in the hole (solitary confinement)

- Created shared grievances amongst prisoners->rebelled against the guards

Question 5

What happened in the ‘guards becoming galvanised’ phase?

Answer 5

• Rebelling prisoners punished, well behaved prisoners rewarded with privileges
• Guards became increasingly brutal
• One prisoner had an emotional breakdown

Question 6

What does this study suggest?

Answer 6

Ordinary can be transformed by immediate context to perform brutality

Question 7

What did Carnahan and Macfarland investigate?

Answer 7

• Investigated if there were unusual character aspects to type of volunteers participating in similar studies
• Compared personality profiles of people who agreed to partake
• Those agreeing
• > Authoritarian, narcissistic, socially dominant
• > Less empathetic and altruistic

Question 8

What were the characteristic split between the guards?

Answer 8

• 1/3 became sadistic towards prisoners
• 1/3 were fair
• 1/3 were kind
• Some guards saw themselves as research assistants

Question 9

In Lovibond et al study what were the findings/method?

Answer 9

• Prison study under 3 conditions
  1. Democratic
  2. Participatory
  3. Authoritarian
• 1 and 2 were, prisoners were respected
• 3 the guard behaviour became toxic

Question 10

What were the findings from Reicher and Haslam’s study?

Answer 10

• Guards weren’t told what to do, causing them to disagree about their roles
• Prisoners developed shared sense of identify and resisted the guards
• Guards became disillusion, prisoners developed a sense of efficacy

Question 11

For people to take on roles what conditions have to be met?

Answer 11

• Have to identify with the role

- Have to incorporate into sense of self

Question 12

Shared sense of identity in High Status groups vs Low status groups

Answer 12

• HIGH: can lead to brutality when promoted by tyrannical leader
• LOW: can allow resist of oppression rather than succumb to it

Question 13

What does interaction between persona and context lead to?

Answer 13

Tyranny and resistance

Question 14

How is interaction dynamic?

Answer 14

• Context transforms individuals
• Individuals transform content through capacity to represent, lead, and mobilise people
• People have the capacity to support or resist tyranny