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Criminal Psychology

Haney et al. (1973) simulated prison study: background, procedure and the prisoners' rebellion

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Overview

Recall questions on the aim and method of Haney, Banks and Zimbardo's 1973 simulated prison study, sample screening, random role allocation, making the prison realistic, deindividuating prisoners, the guards' role, and the prisoners' rebellion and its aftermath.

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Key term

How was the sample obtained and screened?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    State the aim of Haney, Banks and Zimbardo's simulated prison study.

    Model answer

    To test whether the brutality reported in prisons is caused by the dispositions of the people in them or by the situation of the prison itself, by placing ordinary people in the roles of guard and prisoner.

  2. 2

    Why is Haney et al.'s study best described as a simulation with controlled observation rather than a true experiment?

    Model answer

    There was no manipulated independent variable compared against a control condition; behaviour in a role-played environment was observed and recorded on video, in questionnaires and in interviews.

  3. 3

    How was the sample obtained and screened?

    Model answer

    Seventy-five men answered a newspaper advertisement offering fifteen dollars a day for a study of prison life, and twenty-four mostly white, middle-class male students were selected after interviews and personality tests as the most stable, mature and least antisocial.

  4. 4

    How were participants assigned to roles, and why does that matter?

    Model answer

    They were randomly allocated to be guards or prisoners, so any difference in behaviour between the groups could not be attributed to the kind of person each already was.

  5. 5

    How was the mock prison made to feel real for the prisoners?

    Model answer

    They were arrested without warning at home by real police, fingerprinted and blindfolded, then taken to a converted basement where they were stripped, deloused and locked in small cells.

  6. 6

    Name three features used to deindividuate the prisoners.

    Model answer

    They wore a numbered smock with no underclothes, a nylon stocking cap over the hair and a chain on one ankle, and were addressed only by number.

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