Final answer:
Zimbardo's prison experiment demonstrated that situations can overpower individual personal traits and highlighted how individuals conform to the roles they are expected to play. However, the study's ethical issues and the challenges in replicating the findings have led to questions about its validity. The correct choice is a. situations: personal traits.
Step-by-step explanation:
Zimbardo's "prison experiment" is proposed to demonstrate that situations can overpower personal traits, and people may conform to expected roles. The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, aimed to explore the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle between prisoners and prison officers. In this study, the participants were assigned roles of prisoners and guards and were expected to act out their parts.
However, the outcomes showed that the power of situations, specifically the roles they were given, could strongly influence individuals' behaviors, sometimes leading to harsh treatment and psychological stress. Notably, the study suggested that social roles and the expectations associated with these roles could lead to behavior that might not coincide with one's individual personality traits.
Subsequent criticisms of the study challenged its ethical implications and the extent to which the findings could be generalized. It was noted that Zimbardo himself provided specific instructions to the guards on how to behave, possibly affecting the authenticity of the behaviors displayed.
Moreover, other researchers failed to replicate the findings when similar guidelines were omitted, further questioning the experiment's validity. These controversies highlight the complexities involved in understanding the power that social roles, social norms, and scripts play in human behavior.