Zimbardo's study

Question 1

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 1

To find out whether prison guards acted brutally because they have sadistic personalities or if it was their social role as a prison guard that created such behaviour.

Question 2

Who were the participants in the study?

Answer 2

21 male students assessed as being ‘emotionally stable’ (24 originally selected)

Question 3

Which sampling technique was used?

Answer 3

Volunteer

Question 4

How were participants assigned the role of prisoner or guard?

Answer 4

Randomly

Question 5

Describe the prisoners’ uniforms

Answer 5

loose smock, cap to cover their hair, identified by numbers (names were never used).

Question 6

Describe the prison guards’ uniforms

Answer 6

military uniform, wooden clubs, handcuffs & mirrored shades.

Question 7

Why were they given these uniforms?

Answer 7

These uniforms created a loss of personal identity, called de-individuation, which meant they were more likely to conform to the perceived social roles.

Question 8

What instructions were the participants given to try to get them to conform to their social roles?

Answer 8

Prisoners –> rather than leaving the study, they could ‘apply for parole’
Guards –> reminded that they had complete power over the prisoners and told to maintain order but to not harm the prisoners

Question 9

What were the main findings of the study? Describe what the prisoners did.

Answer 9

Rebelled within 2 days by ripping their uniform, shouting/swearing at guards. Guards then retaliated with fire extinguishers. After rebellion was put down, they became subdued, depressed and anxious. One was released for showing signs of psychological disturbance. Two more were released on day 4. One went on a hunger strike.

Question 10

What were the main findings of the study? Describe what the guards did.

Answer 10

Took up their roles with enthusiasm, treated prisoners harshly, used divide-and-rule tactics by pitting prisoners against each other, harassed prisoners by reminding them of the powerlessness of their role, including humiliating them as part of the ‘degradation process’, waking prisoners up in the night for ‘headcounts’, make them do tasks such as clean toilets with their bare hands and gave out punishments as they saw fit. Highlighted differences in social roles by creating opportunities to enforce rules and administer punishments. Tried to force-feed a prisoner on a hunger strike, and then punished him by putting him in ‘the hole’ (dark cupboard). The guards identified more closely with their role as the study continued, becoming more brutal and aggressive. Some seemed to enjoy their power over the prisoners.

Question 11

The study had to end early. How early?

Answer 11

Study was stopped on 6th day instead of as planned on the 14th day.

Question 12

What did they conclude from the study about conformity to social roles?

Answer 12

Social roles appear to have a strong influence on individual’s behaviour. Prisoners became submissive and prison guards become brutal. Therefore, people do seem to conform to social roles (identification).
Social roles were easily (automatically) taken on by participants, including volunteers who came to perform specific functions, who found they were behaving as if they were in a prison rather than a psychological study.

Question 13

What are social roles?

Answer 13

the ‘parts’ that people play as members of different social groups. These give us expectations of how we and others should behave in a given role.

Question 14

Is Zimbardo’s study an experiment?

Answer 14

• Technically speaking, Zimbardo did not have a control group. Therefore, it is not an experiment.
• It would be classed as a controlled observation as he controlled the environment (the ‘prison’) and the roles participants were given (guard or prisoner).
• It would also be classed as a participant observation because of Zimbardo’s dual roles in the study (researcher and prison superintendent).
• FYI it’s also overt.

Question 15

Weakness of Zimbardo’s study (ethical)

Answer 15

Informed consent – whilst participants were aware that they were taking part in a study and would take on the role of prisoner or guard, they did not know that they would be arrested in their homes or stripped and ‘deloused’ etc.

It could be argued that these costs are outweighed by the benefits of what was learned about conformity to social roles. Whilst this doesn’t compromise the validity of the conclusion, it does suggest that such a study would not be allowed to be conducted again.

Counterargument: Zimbardo did debrief participants and conduct a follow-up to check for long-term psychological harm and found that there was none

Question 16

Strength of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 16

There was good control over variables e.g. the selection of participants. Emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles of guard and prisoner. This was a way to try to rule out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings. If guards and prisoners behaved differently, but their roles were assigned by chance, then their behaviour must have been due to the pressures of the situation.

This increases the internal validity of the study and so we can be more confident in drawing conclusions about conformity to social roles from Zimbardo’s study.

Question 17

Weakness of Zimbardo’s study (exaggerating)

Answer 17

Zimbardo has been accused of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour, and minimising the role of personality factors (dispositional influences). For example, only a minority of the guards behaved in a brutal manner. Another third were keen to apply the rules fairly. The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners, sympathising with them, offering them cigarettes and reinstating privileges.

This suggests that the conclusion that participants conformed to social roles may be overstated. The differences found indicate that people have the ability to make right/wrong choices despite pressures to conform to a social role and so people do not automatically conform to social roles.

Question 18

Real world application of Zimbardo’ study

Answer 18

Zimbardo argues that the same conformity to social role effect from the SPE was also present in Abu Ghraib, a military prison in Iraq notorious for the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers in 2003-4. Zimbardo believed that the guards who committed the abuse were the victims of situational factors that made abuse more likely e.g. lack of training, unrelenting boredom and no accountability to a higher authority, which were present in both situations. These combined with an opportunity to misuse the power associated with the assigned role of ‘guard’ led to the prisoner abuse in both situations.

This suggests that the findings of Zimbardo’s study on conformity to social roles have powerful external validity, and could be used to ensure that such abuses don’t happen again.

Question 19

What are the ethical issues with Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 19

· Zimbardo’s dual role as both the prison superintendent and the lead researcher meant that when one participant asked to leave, he treated them as a ‘prisoner’ rather than a ‘participant’ and so offered them the chance to ‘snitch’ rather than release them from the study. This compromised the participants’ right to withdraw. Participants had to therefore ask multiple times to leave, and one participant even claimed to fake psychological issues in order to be released.
· Protection of participants – participants suffered great psychological distress/harm during the course of the study. For example, prisoners were repeatedly woken in the middle of the night, had to do demeaning tasks such as cleaning toilets with a toothbrush, were locked in the ‘hole’ for misdemeanours, and one even went on a hunger strike (which could cause physical harm too). Guards suffered distress knowing that they had acted aggressively.
Informed consent – whilst participants were aware that they were taking part in a study and would take on the role of prisoner or guard, they did not know that they would be arrested in their homes or stripped and ‘deloused’ etc.

Question 20

Conclusions of Zimbardo’s study

Answer 20

Social roles appear to have a strong influence on individual’s behaviour. The guards became brutal and prisoners submissive.
Such roles were easily taken on by participants. Even volunteers who came in to perform specific functions found themselves behaving as if they were in prison rather than a study.
Begs the question; are people inherently good? As people were put in a bad situation and became bad etc