Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Zimbardo (1973) Stanford Prison Experiment (Some control over variables…
Zimbardo (1973) Stanford Prison Experiment
Some control over variables
Emotionally stable ppts were recruited
Randomly assigned to roles of prisoners or guards
Guards and prisoners had their roles only by chance
Behaviours due to pressure of situation not personality (no individual differences)
Control increases study's internal validity
More confident in drawing conclusions about influences of social roles on behaviour.
Lack of realism
Some researchers suggested ppts were play-acting
Performances reflected stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave
One guard based role on character from prison film.
Prisoners rioted because they thought what real prisoners did.
Zimbardo's data showed 90% of prisoners' conversations were about prison life
Shows stimulation felt real to them
Increased study's internal validity
Zimbardo understated dispositional influences
Only 1/3 of guards behaved brutally
1/3 of guards applied rules fairly
1/3 of guards supported prisoners - offering cigarettes and reinstating privileges.
Zimbardo's conclusion - 'ppts conformed to social rules' - may be over-stated
Exaggerated power of situation
Differences in guards' behaviour show that they could choose right or wrong choices
Not by situational pressures to conform to a role.
Lacks research support and contradictory research
Explained by social identity theory
Guards in replication failed to develop shared social identity as group but prisoners did
Refused to accept limits of their assigned roles
Brutality of guards in original experiment was due to shared social identity as cohesive group
Partial replication of SPE had different findings
Prisoners eventually took over
Ethical issues
Zimbardo was both lead researcher and superintendent (prison manager)
Ppt who wanted to leave study spoke to Zimbardo
Responded as superintendent who was worried about running of prison
Limited Zimbardo's ability to protect ppts from harm
Superintendent role conflicted with lead researcher role