1.1.4

Conformity to Social Roles

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Motivation to Conform

Researchers have categorised the motivation to conform into two types:

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Normative social influence

  • People conform to the group norm to fit in, to feel good, and to be accepted by the group.
  • In Asch's (1951) line judgement task, participants complied to fit in and avoid ridicule, an instance of normative social influence.
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Informational social influence

  • People conform because they believe the group is competent and has the correct information, particularly when the task or situation is ambiguous.
  • An example of informational social influence may be what to do in an emergency situation, e.g. if you are in a crowded cinema and see smoke coming out from under the fire exit. You are not certain that it is smoke as it may be a special effect for the movie, so you will tend to look at the behaviour of those around when deciding what to do.

Stanford Prison Experiment

The famous Stanford prison experiment was conducted by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University in 1971. It demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts.

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Social roles, social norms and scripts

  • A social role is a pattern of behaviour that is expected of a person in a given setting or group (Hare, 2003).
  • A social norm is a group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour for its members - how they are supposed to behave and think (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955; Berkowitz, 2004).
  • A script is a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting (Schank & Abelson, 1977).
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Volunteers

  • In the summer of 1971, an advertisement was placed in a California newspaper asking for male volunteers to participate in a study about the psychological effects of prison life.
  • More than 70 men volunteered, and these volunteers then underwent psychological testing to eliminate candidates who had underlying psychiatric issues, medical issues, or a history of crime or drug abuse.
  • The pool of volunteers was whittled down to 24 healthy male college students.
  • Each student was paid $15 per day and was randomly assigned to play the role of either a prisoner or a guard in the study.
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Mock prison

  • A mock prison was constructed in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford.
  • Participants assigned to play the role of prisoners were “arrested” at their homes by Palo Alto police officers, booked at a police station, and subsequently taken to the mock prison.
  • The experiment was scheduled to run for two weeks.
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Conforming to social roles

  • To the surprise of the researchers, both the “prisoners” and “guards” assumed their roles with great energy.
  • In fact, on day two, some of the prisoners revolted, and the guards quelled the rebellion by threatening the prisoners with night sticks.
  • In a relatively short time, the guards came to harass the prisoners in an increasingly sadistic manner, through a complete lack of privacy, lack of basic comforts such as mattresses to sleep on, and through degrading chores and late-night counts.
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Conforming to social roles (continued)

  • The prisoners, in turn, began to show signs of severe anxiety and hopelessness - they began tolerating the guards’ abuse.
  • Even Zimbardo found himself acting as if the prison was real and his role, as prison supervisor, was real as well.
  • After only six days, the experiment had to be ended due to the participants’ deteriorating behaviour.
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The power of social roles, norms and scripts

  • The guards and prisoners enacted their social roles by engaging in behaviours appropriate to the roles.
  • Social norms require guards to be authoritarian and prisoners to be submissive. When prisoners rebelled, they violated these social norms, which led to upheaval.
  • The specific acts engaged by the guards and the prisoners derived from scripts.
  • Some prisoners became so immersed in their roles that they showed symptoms of mental breakdown.
    • According to Zimbardo, none of the participants suffered long term harm (Alexander, 2001).
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Abu Ghraib

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment has some parallels with the abuse of prisoners of war by U.S. Army troops and CIA personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004.
  • Photographs document the offences at Abu Ghraib. Some of the abusers even took photographs.

Orlando (1973) - Mock Psychiatric Ward Experiment

Orlando (1973) looked at how people conformed to roles given to them in an experiment in a mock psychiatric ward.

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Method

  • The mock psychiatric ward was active for three days.
  • 51 staff members took part.
    • 29 volunteered as mock patients.
    • 22 worked their jobs as normal.
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Results and conclusion

  • The mock patients quickly began acting like normal hospital patients. They conformed to their given roles.
  • Lots of patients showed signs of having withdrawal and depression.
  • Six mock patients attempted to escape the ward.
  • Some mock patients admitted to feelings of lost identity.
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Analysis

  • Orlando's (1973) study and similar studies give an insight into real patients' experiences in hospital.
    • Orlando's (1973) study influenced hospital staff to empathise more with patients.

Jump to other topics

1Social Influence

2Memory

3Attachment

4Psychopathology

5Approaches in Psychology

6Biopsychology

7Research Methods

8Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)

9Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)

10Option 1: Gender (A2 only)

11Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)

12Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)

13Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)

14Option 2: Stress (A2 only)

15Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)

16Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)

17Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)

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