Zimbardo Social influence

On the website Abu Ghraib Zimbardo research article Link to zimbardo’s website http://www.prisonexp.org/

Write down one strength and one weakness of the experimental design used in this study.

A psychologist investigated the relationship between type of attachment in childhood and success in later adult relationships. He published a questionnaire in a local newspaper. The participants were people who read the newspaper, filled in the questionnaire and sent it to the psychologist. Participants’ answers to the questions were used to decide whether they had been securely or insecurely attached as children. The participants who were identified as securely attached children were more likely to have successful adult relationships than those identified as insecurely attached children. 2. Identify the sampling technique used in this study. Outline one weakness of using this sampling method.

Answers The experimental design was an independent groups design. Strengths and weaknesses include: Strengths: Can use the same list of words – equal in difficulty, order effects are avoided, participants are less likely to guess aim. Weaknesses: Cannot control for individual differences between groups, more participants are needed in comparison to RMD. 2. This is a volunteer/self-selected sample. Only people who read this newspaper could take part so findings cannot be generalised to a wider population The participants have chosen to take part, so it is a biased sample. Not all readers may respond so the sample is not typical of all readers.

Objectives: What did Zimbardo do and find in his Stanford Prison Experiment of (1971)? Understand: To describe the Aim, Procedure, Findings and Conclusion of Zimbardo’s study. Apply: To explain what this suggests about conformity to social roles. Evaluate: To discuss strengths, weaknesses and counter arguments for Zimbardo’s investigation. Outline & evaluate Reicher & Haslam replication

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT GOOD PEOPLE IN AN EVIL PLACE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT GOOD PEOPLE IN AN EVIL PLACE? DOES HUMANITY WIN OVER EVIL, OR DOES EVIL TRIUMPH?

Zimbardo wanted to investigate… A different kind of conformity to what we have looked at before. Rather than looking at how we conform to behaviours or opinions of others – he investigated conformity to social roles. What is a social role? The parts people play as members of social groups, and the expectations that come with this. E.g. a parent is expected to be caring, nurturing and look after the children. A student is expected to be obedient and respect authority.

Conformity to social roles List all the different social roles you play in a day Does your behaviour change in each of these situations? Can social roles lead to undesirable behaviour?

So… Following reports of brutality by prison guards in America in 1960’s, he wanted to answer the following Q: ‘Do prison guards behave brutally because they have sadist personalities, or is it the situation which creates this behaviour?’ What do you think? Discuss…

Dr Phil Zimbardo A Psychology Professor at Stanford University A mock prison was built in the basement of Stanford University and a group of university students were randomly allocated the role of prisoner or guard. Zimbardo argues that it is the situation that makes people act the way they do rather than their disposition.

Bad People Do Bad Things? Zimbardo attempts to explain the violent and brutal conditions often found in prisons had previously used dispositional attribution. Prison life is horrible because of the people that inhabit prisons It is not the prison environment that makes people act in the ways that they do but rather the dispositions (character traits) of those who live and work there.

ZIMBARDO’ STANFORD PRISON STUDY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAX9b7agT9o As you watch this video, make a note of as many examples of conformity to social roles as you can, not just by the guards and prisoners, but by Zimbardo himself as the prison superintendent.

Your Task: use homework sheet/pack/textbooks Create a detailed timeline of the events that occurred in Zimbardo’s study. From how the participants were selected To how the experiment ended

Ethics! Consider the following questions: Why did the study shock the world? What made the study so unethical?

Zimbardo (1971): evaluation What do we need to include in the evaluation. Mind-map which evaluation points link to Zimbardo study

Or should we take responsibility for our own behaviour? So can the situation explain the behaviour of the American and British Soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib Scandal...? Abu ghraib documentary on the webiste Or should we take responsibility for our own behaviour?

ZIMBARDO – REAL LIFE RELEVANCE? Zimbardo says that the power of the situation and the conformity to social norms they trigger can explain much bad behaviour in institutions. He uses the real life examples of the human rights abuses of Iraqi detainees by the US Army at Abu Ghraib prison in the early 2000s. He says the torture & degradation seen there was predictable from the SPE findings. He was called as an expert witness at the trial of one soldier. Key term: Deindividuation: loss of self awareness to the group/role. Upper Right: Al Shalal – told he would electrocute himself to death if he broke the stress position Warning: There is some blood & upsetting content in still images in the DVD ‘Zimbardo Speaks’. Also useful is programme 19 of Zimbardo’s Discovering Psychology https://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html September 18

Reicher and haslam One of the best ways to check a study’s reliability (consistency of results) and validity (does it truly measure what it claims to) is to replicate it. (This can be difficult with unethical studies!). Watch the You Tube clip on Reicher & Haslam’s replication of Zimbardo’s study (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaXXqrUzKHw) and answer the following questions:

Evaluation of Zimbardo’s research – questions In what ways did Zimbardo have control over his variables? What does good control over variables mean for a study? What did Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argue about the study’s realism? How did Zimbardo counter their claim? What was Fromm’s accusation about the study? Give an example of what his criticisms were. What does this suggest about the conclusion Zimbardo came to from his research? What have more recent studies, such as the 2006 replication, found? What did Zimbardo do ‘wrong’ in his study to cause ethical issues?

Evaluation of Zimbardo’s research – questions In what ways did Zimbardo have control over his variables? – Choice of participants – emotionally stable. Randomly allocated to conditions to avoid influence of personality. Control What does good control over variables mean for a study? Good internal validity – cause and effect of the roles. What did Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argue about the study’s realism? Play acting based on stereotypes which affects the validity of the results. How did Zimbardo counter their claim? But quantitative data captured that the prisoners thought it was a real prison. What was Fromm’s accusation about the study? Give an example of what his criticisms were. Was it really about roles? Only a minority of guards behaved in a brutal manner. The rest supported the prisoners. What does this suggest about the conclusion Zimbardo came to from his research? Did Zimbardo exaggerate the influence of social roles? What have more recent studies, such as the 2006 replication, found? Prisoners took hold of the prison rather than the guards – reversal of roles. Due to the creation of shared identity of the prisoners – formed a social group. What did Zimbardo do ‘wrong’ in his study to cause ethical issues? Right to withdraw/protection of Participants

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