Zimbardo

Conformity - Zimbardo

Evaluation

Control

• There was control over the mental stability of the participants.
• Ruled out participant variation and increases internal validity.

Lack of Realism

• Banuazizi and Mohavedi criticised Zimbardo's study for lacking realism because participants were play-acting.
• Their performances were based on stereotypes.
• Zimbardo produced quantitative data showing 90% of prisoners conversations were about prison life.

Ignores Dispositional Influences

• Fromm accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour and minimised the role of personality factors.
• Only about a third of the guards were brutal and the differences in the guards' behaviour.
• Indicates they were able to exercise right and wrong choices despite pressure to conform.

Lack of Research Support

• Reicher and Haslam partially replicated this experiment but their findings were very different.
• The prisoners eventually took control of the prison by harassing and disobeying the guards.
• They used social identity theory to explain this outcome, as the guards failed to develop a shared social identity.

Ethical Issues

• Deception
• Protection from harm
• Informed consent
• Right to withdraw

Conclusions

• People will conform to the roles they're given.
• Demonstrated that people will behave in an undesirable way if they feel that this is the social norm for that role - this is identification.

Ethical Issues

• Deception - Participants were told that they would be part of a 'mock prison' but were not aware of how badly the prisoners would be treated of that they would be arrested at their home.
• Informed consent - Participants were aware that if they were prisoners they would have poor living conditions and minimal rights. Despite this, as participants were deceived they could not have given their full informed consent.
• Right to withdraw - Participants were told they could leave the study, however, when one tried to leave, he was bribed to stay in, giving him the impression that he could not leave.
• Protection from harm - Participants' mental state was tested after the study and none suffered long-term trauma. However, during the study prisoners were forced to do pushups and were put into the 'hole' as punishment.

Findings

• The guards took up their roles with enthusiasm.
• Study was intended to last 14 days but was stopped after 6 as the guard's behaviour became a threat to the prisoner's psychological and physical health.
• Within two days, the prisoners were rebelling against the guards.
• The guards retaliated with fire extinguishers and harassed prisoners constantly.
• Guards highlighted the differences in social roles by enforcing the rules and handing out punishments.
• One prisoner was released on the first day due to symptoms of psychological disturbance.
• Another prisoner went on hunger strike and the guards attempted to force feed him and then punished him by locking him in the 'hole'.
• The prisoners became increasingly passive.
• The guards identified more and more closely with their roles and became more aggressive.

Procedure

• Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University in California.
• Participants were male student volunteers who were tested for their psychological stability.
• Participants were randomly allocated role of guard or prisoner.
• Prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at their home by the local police and taken to the 'prison. They were then stripped, deloused, given a smock and stocking to wear and were given a number that they were referred to as.
• Prison guards were given uniforms, including a wooden club, handcuffs keys and mirrored sunglasses. They had complete power over prisoners.

Aim

Phillip Zimbardo and his colleagues wanted to know whether prison guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities, or is it due to the situation?