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Conformity to social Roles - Zimbardo Study (Findings (guards tried to…
Conformity to social Roles - Zimbardo Study
Aim
To see how readily people conform to new roles
Procedure
mock prison environment
PPts = healthly male volunteers who were paid for 2 weeks as either a guard/prisoner role
prisoners were labelled as numbers
they were 'arrested' from their homes
Findings
guards tried to assert their authority
prisoners resisted by sticking together
prisoners then became more obedient
guards begain to invent nastier punishments
experiment ended early because prisoners became very distressed
Conclusion
guards and prisoners adopted social roles quickly
Shows that social roles can influence our behaviour
Sane men became aggressive and unpleasant as a guard
Evaluation
ethical issues
ppts were deceived
were not aware of how they’d be treated
if theyd known their treatment would be bad, they may not have agreed to take part
Strenghts
high ecological validity
real life environment giving natural behaviour
generalisability