what was the question that inspired zimbardo's prison experiment
do prison guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities or because of the environment they work in
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where was the mock prison set up?
in the basement of the psychology department at stanford university
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how did they recruit the participants
they advertised for volunteers
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how were the volunteers deemed fit?
they were assessed and had to be emotionally stable.
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how were the volunteers assigned to their roles?
random allocation
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why were the prisoners arrested in their own homes before the study began?
to heighten the sense of reality.
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how many rules were there which the prisoners had to follow?
16
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what did zimbardo do in order to heighten the reality of the ppts social roles?
the prisoners had numbers not names and the guards wore uniforms and carried weapons
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how did the guards take on their social role?
with enthusiasm, they really conformed to their role
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after how many days was the experiment stopped, and how many days was is planned to last?
stopped after 6 days and was supposed to last for 14
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why was the experiment stopped
because there was a threat posed to the prisoners physical and mental health
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after how many days did the prisoners begin to rebel?
2 days
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what characteristics did the prisoners show after a few days
they were subdued, anxious and depressed
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what kind of conformity were the guards showing in relation to their social roles?
identification
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what did the outcome of the study show?
that the power of a situation has a lot to play over the behaviour of people placed in those social roles.
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how was control over extraneous variables demonstrated in the experiment
only those deemed emotionally stable were selected to participate and also random allocation was used which illuminates researcher bias.
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what does having control over extraneous variables increase?
internal validity
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what is one criticism over the application of this study?
some say that the participants were merely play acting and their behaviour wasn't actually internalised, they were playing on stereotypes.
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what conflicting evidence disproves the previous criticism
the prisoners were recorded talking about prison life for 90% of their conversations proving that it was very real to the participants
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what other criticisms are there based on the behaviours of the guards and prisoners
some claim that dispositional influences had more of a part to play than the social roles the ppts were allocated. it was their personality shining through!
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why does a lack of research support limit the application of the study
it reduces the reliability of the study making it less easy to trust
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what were the ethical issues of the study?
the participants weren't protected from harm, they did not give informed consent and they were not given the right to withdraw at any time.
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
where was the mock prison set up?
Back
in the basement of the psychology department at stanford university
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