Psychology

Based on the video clip, discuss how the themes of this week (i.e., conformity, obedience, and social influence) may have influenced the guard’s actions.

https://gofile.io/d/eBgrQz

ANSWER

Conformity, Obedience, and Social Influence

Conformity is a type of influence that emanates from either the real, physical, or imaginary presence of an element. It causes a change in a person’s behavior or beliefs to fit in with a group due to pressure and the desire that an individual gets to live up to expectations. Dave Eshelman, a cast playing a guard in the Stanford experiment, was expected to obtain results from the prisoners. The experiment’s environment made the guard easily influenced by the characteristics of the role that he was cast to play. He felt the pressure to conform to what is expected of a correctional officer. This made him change his behavior to fit what he believed to be a correctional officer’s appropriate behavior.

Social influence is another factor that influenced the guard’s decision. Each other’s actions shaped the prison guard’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Depending on how one prison guard handled the prisoners, the other guards undertook similar actions. For instance, if one guard brutalized a prisoner, the other followed because they believed that prisoners deserved such treatment. This shows the extent of social influence in shaping individual behavior and actions.

Obedience is another form of social influence that causes a change in an individual’s behavior to comply with an authority figure. Participants are expected to adhere to the rules and expectations of the research process. The researchers in this situation were the figure of authority to the guard.  What the researchers required from the guard was that he gets results from the prisoners. The actions of the guard were scripted. Even though the guard was not comfortable with everything that was scripted, he did it in compliance with his authorities’ instructions.