Conformity to social roles

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  • Conformity to social roles
    • Key study: the Stanford prison experiment
      • Procedure: Mock prison in the basement at Stanford uni (planned to last 2 weeks)
        • Male student volunteers were psychologically and physically screened and the 24 most stable were randomly assigned to roles of either  prisoner or guard
          • Prisoners were unexpectedly arrested and put through a delousing procedure and were given an ID number and prison uniform they were allowed simple rights including 3 meals a day, supervised toilet breaks and two visits per week
          • Guards were given a uniform, clubs, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses (to prevent eye contact)
          • Zimbardo took the role of Prison Superintendent
      • Findings:  over the first few days the guards grew increasingly abusive towards the prisoner and even made them carry out degrading activities
        • Some of the guards even asked to work extra hours for free
        • Even when they were unaware of being watched they still conformed to their role
        • 5 prisoners were released early because of extreme reactions after just 2 days
        • Study was fully terminated after just 6 days
        • The study demonstrated that both guard and prisoners conformed to their social roles
          • The guard became increasingly cruel and sadistic and the prisoners became passive and accepting of their plight
    • BBC prison study:
      • Procedure:  15 male PP's divided into 5 groups of 3 matched to key personality variables in each group there was a randomly chosen guard and 2 prisoners the study ran for 8 days
      • Findings: PP's did not conform automatically like in the Stanford experiment
        • Prisoners began to form a group and challenge the  guards
          • The guards also failed to identify with their role which led to a short of power and collapsed the prisoner-guard system
    • Evaluation:
      • Conformity to roles is not automatic:
        • In the SPE guard behaviour varied from sadistic to a few 'good guards'
          • This shows that the guards chose how to act rather than blindly conforming to their roles
      • The problem of demand characteristics:
        • Banuazizi and Movahedi believed that the behaviour of the guards wasn't to do with the prison environment but the demand characteristics in the situation itself
      • Were the studies ethical:
        • Zimbardos study was considered ethical because it followed the guidelines of the Stanford uni ethics committee that approved it
          • There was no deception
          • However Zimbardo admits that the study should have been stopped earlier as many of the PP's experienced emotional distress
            • Tried to fix it by offering debriefing sessions for several years after and concluded no long lasting affects
      • The SPE and its relevance to Abu Ghraib:
        • Zimbardo believed that the guards who committed the abuses were the victims of situational factors e.g lack of training, unrelenting borders and no higher authority was present .
      • What did we learn form the studies?:
        • Zimbardos conclusion from the SPE was the people defend into tyranny because they conform unthinkingly to the roles that authorities prescribe without the need for specific order  that it was a
          • natural consequence of being allocated the role of guard and asserting power associated with the role
        • The result of the BBC prison study suggests that the way in which member of strong groups behave depends upon the norms and values associated with the role

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