Claims being made by Phillip Zimbardo in the Stanford Prison experiment.

Let’s summarize the claims being made by Phillip Zimbardo in the Stanford Prison experiment.

• First, what were the variables in the study? Give one independent variable and one dependent variable.

• For each of your two variables above, identify if they were manipulated or measured variables.

• How did Zimbardo claim that the two variables are related? What type of claim is this (hint – use your variables: Frequency, Association, or Causal)? Answer both questions.

• Finally, which type of validity should Zimbardo have been most concerned with, external or internal validity? Why?

It was intended to measure the effect of role-playing, labeling, and social expectations on behaviour over a period of two weeks. However, mistreatment of prisoners escalated so alarmingly that principal investigator Philip G. Zimbardo terminated the experiment after only six days.

What happened in the Zimbardo experiment?

According to Zimbardo and his colleagues, the Stanford Prison Experiment revealed how people will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are as strongly stereotyped as those of the prison guards