Psychology Essay
2017/7/18 PSY101 - Module 1 1.2
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Figure 11.7 Being a student is just one of the m any social
roles you have. (credit: "University of M ichigan
M SIS"/Flickr)
M o d u le 1 1 .2 : S e lf - p r e s e n t a t io n
As you've learned, social psychology is the study of how people affect one another's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. W e have discussed
situational perspectives and social psychology's em phasis on the w ays in w hich a person's environm ent, including culture and other social
influences, affect behavior. In this section, w e exam ine situational forces that have a strong influence on hum an behavior including social roles,
social norm s, and scripts. W e discuss how hum ans use the social environm ent as a source of inform ation, or cues, on how to behave.
Situational influences on our behavior have im portant consequences, such as w hether w e w ill help a stranger in an em ergency or how w e
w ould behave in an unfam iliar environm ent.
S o c ia l R o le s
O ne m ajor social determ inant of hum an behavior is our social roles. A social role is a pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given
setting or group. Each one of us has several social roles. You m ay be, at the sam e tim e, a student, a parent, an aspiring teacher, a son or
daughter, a spouse, and a lifeguard. H ow do these social roles influence your behavior?
Social roles are defined by culturally shared know ledge. That is, nearly everyone in a given
culture know s w hat behavior is expected of a person in a given role. For exam ple, w hat is
the social role for a student? If you look around a college classroom you w ill likely see
students engaging in studious behavior, taking notes, listening to the professor, reading
the textbook, and sitting quietly at their desks (Figure 11.7). O f course you m ay see
students deviating from the expected studious behavior such as texting on their phones or
using Facebook on their laptops, but in all cases, the students that you observe are
attending class— a part of the social role of students.
Social roles, and our related behavior, can vary across different settings. H ow do you
behave w hen you are engaging in the role of son or daughter and attending a fam ily
function? N ow im agine how you behave w hen you are engaged in the role of em ployee at
your w orkplace. It is very likely that your behavior w ill be different. Perhaps you are m ore
relaxed and outgoing w ith your fam ily, m aking jokes and doing silly things, but at your
w orkplace you m ight speak m ore professionally, and although you m ay be friendly, you are
also serious and focused on getting the w ork com pleted. These are exam ples of how our
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Figure 11.8 Young people struggle to becom e
social roles influence and often dictate our behavior to the extent that identity and personality can vary w ith context (that is, in different social
groups).
S o c ia l N o rm s
As discussed previously, social roles are defined by a culture's shared know ledge of w hat is expected behavior of an individual in a specific role.
This shared know ledge com es from social norm s. A social norm is a group's expectation of w hat is appropriate and acceptable behavior for its
m em bers— how they are supposed to behave and think. H ow are w e expected to act? W hat are w e expected to talk about? W hat are w e
expected to w ear? In our discussion of social roles w e noted that colleges have social norm s for students' behavior in the role of student and
w orkplaces have social norm s for em ployees' behaviors in the role of em ployee. Social norm s are everyw here including in fam ilies, gangs, and
on social m edia outlets. W hat are som e social norm s on Facebook?
E ve ryd a y C o n n e ctio n
Tw eens, Teens, and Social N orm s
M y 11-year-old daughter, Jessica, recently told m e she needed shorts and shirts for the sum m er, and that she w anted m e to
take her to a store at the m all that is popular w ith preteens and teens to buy them . I have noticed that m any girls have
clothes from that store, so I tried teasing her. I said, "All the shirts say 'Aero' on the front. If you are w earing a shirt like that
and you have a substitute teacher, and the other girls are all w earing that type of shirt, w on't the substitute teacher think
you are all nam ed 'Aero'?"
M y daughter replied, in typical 11-year-old fashion, "M om , you are not
funny. Can w e please go shopping?"
I tried a different tactic. I asked Jessica if having clothing from that
particular store w ill m ake her popular. She replied, "N o, it w ill not m ake
m e popular. It is w hat the popular kids w ear. It w ill m ake m e feel
happier." H ow can a label or nam e brand m ake som eone feel happier?
Think back to w hat you've learned about lifespan developm ent. W hat is it
about pre-teens and young teens that m ake them w ant to fit in (Figure
11.8)? D oes this change over tim e? Think back to your high school
experience, or look around your college cam pus. W hat is the m ain nam e 2017/7/18 PSY101 - Module 1 1.2
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independent at the sam e tim e they are desperately
trying to fit in with their peers. (credit: M onica Arellano-
Ongpin)
brand clothing you see? W hat m essages do w e get from the m edia about
how to fit in?
S c rip ts
Because of social roles, people tend to know w hat behavior is expected of them in specific, fam iliar settings. A script is a person's know ledge
about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting. H ow do you act on the first day of school, w hen you w alk into an elevator, or are at
a restaurant? For exam ple, at a restaurant in the U nited States, if w e w ant the server's attention, w e try to m ake eye contact. In Brazil, you
w ould m ake the sound "psst" to get the server's attention. You can see the cultural differences in scripts. To an Am erican, saying "psst" to a
server m ight seem rude, yet to a Brazilian, trying to m ake eye contact m ight not seem an effective strategy. Scripts are im portant sources of
inform ation to guide behavior in given situations. Can you im agine being in an unfam iliar situation and not having a script for how to behave?
This could be uncom fortable and confusing. H ow could you find out about social norm s in an unfam iliar culture?
Z im b ard o 's S tan fo rd P riso n Exp erim en t
The fam ous Stanford prison experim ent, conducted by social psychologist Philip Zim bardo and his colleagues at Stanford U niversity,
dem onstrated the pow er of social roles, social norm s, and scripts. In the sum m er of 1971, an advertisem ent w as placed in a California
new spaper asking for m ale volunteers to participate in a study about the psychological effects of prison life. M ore than 70 m en volunteered,
and these volunteers then underw ent psychological testing to elim inate candidates w ho had underlying psychiatric issues, m edical issues, or a
history of crim e or drug abuse. The pool of volunteers w as w hittled dow n to 24 healthy m ale college students. Each student w as paid $15 per
day and w as random ly assigned to play the role of either a prisoner or a guard in the study. Based on w hat you have learned about research
m ethods, w hy is it im portant that participants w ere random ly assigned?
A m ock prison w as constructed in the basem ent of the psychology building at Stanford. Participants assigned to play the role of prisoners w ere
"arrested" at their hom es by Palo Alto police offi cers, booked at a police station, and subsequently taken to the m ock prison. The experim ent
w as scheduled to run for several w eeks. To the surprise of the researchers, both the "prisoners" and "guards" assum ed their roles w ith zeal. In
fact, on day 2, som e of the prisoners revolted, and the guards quelled the rebellion by threatening the prisoners w ith night sticks. In a relatively
short tim e, the guards cam e to harass the prisoners in an increasingly sadistic m anner, through a com plete lack of privacy, lack of basic
com forts such as m attresses to sleep on, and through degrading chores and late-night counts.
The prisoners, in turn, began to show signs of severe anxiety and hopelessness— they began tolerating the guards' abuse. Even the Stanford
professor w ho designed the study and w as the head researcher, Philip Zim bardo, found him self acting as if the prison w as real and his role, as 2017/7/18 PSY101 - Module 1 1.2
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Figure 11.9 Iraqi prisoners of war were
abused by their Am erican captors in
Abu Ghraib prison, during the second
Iraq war. (credit: United States
Departm ent of Defense)
prison supervisor, w as real as w ell. After only six days, the experim ent had to be ended due to the participants' deteriorating behavior.
Zim bardo explained,
At this point it becam e clear that w e had to end the study.
W e had created an overw helm ingly pow erful situation— a
situation in w hich prisoners w ere w ithdraw ing and behaving
in pathological w ays, and in w hich som e of the guards w ere
behaving sadistically. Even the "good" guards felt helpless to
intervene, and none of the guards quit w hile the study w as in
progress. Indeed, it should be noted that no guard ever cam e
late for his shift, called in sick, left early, or dem anded extra
pay for overtim e w ork. (Zim bardo, 2013)
The Stanford prison experim ent dem onstrated the pow er of social roles, norm s, and scripts in affecting
hum an behavior. The guards and prisoners enacted their social roles by engaging in behaviors appropriate
to the roles: The guards gave orders and the prisoners follow ed orders. Social norm s require guards to be
authoritarian and prisoners to be subm issive. W hen the prisoners rebelled, they violated these social
norm s, w hich led to upheaval. The specific acts engaged by the guards and the prisoners derived from
scripts. Som e prisoners becam e so im m ersed in their roles that they exhibited sym ptom s of m ental
breakdow n; how ever, according to Zim bardo, none of the participants suffered long term harm .
The Stanford Prison Experim ent has som e parallels w ith the abuse of prisoners of w ar by U .S. Arm y troops
and CIA personnel at the Abu G hraib prison in 2003 and 2004. The offenses at Abu G hraib w ere docum ented
by photographs of the abuse, som e taken by the abusers them selves (Figure 11.9).
Lin k to Le a rn in g
Visit this w ebsite to hear an N PR interview w ith Philip Zim bardo w here he discusses the parallels betw een the Stanford
prison experim ent and the Abu G hraib prison in Iraq. 2017/7/18 PSY101 - Module 1 1.2
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M odule 11.1 M odule 11.3
