Stanford Prison Experiment Quiz

What was the goal of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment?

• To discover what prisoners did to make guards hate them

• To understand what caused guards to treat prisoners badly

• To find out why guards are sadistic and cruel people

• To uncover how to make prisons more fair environments

What was the goal of the procedure for the experiment?

• To make the experience as terrifying as possible for the prisoners

• To create an environment where violence was very likely to occur.

• To make it difficult but not impossible for a prisoner to get hurt

• To make the arrests and prison as life-like, though safe, as possible

Which of the following best characterizes the early period of the experiment?

• Prisoners and guards resisted their roles because they thought the experiment was foolish.

• Subjects quickly became affected by their power or lack of power.

• Prisoners began to plan to overthrow the guards.

• Prisoners and guards quickly began to taunt one another.

Which statement best describes why the study ended early?

• Increasingly abusive behavior threatened to permanently harm some subjects.

• All the subjects were becoming too aggressive and violence could have broken out.

• The experiment was making all of the participants sad.

• Zimbardo feared that he could be arrested for continuing the experiment.

Why do the researchers believe that the subjects acted as they did?

• The subjects began to think that the experiment would never end.

• The guards were all secretly sadistic and the prisoners all unknowingly submissive.

• The subjects were following the roles they were expected to play.

• Zimbardo and his team accidentally allowed people with anger disorders to take part in the experiment.

Which of the following quotes best encompasses a central idea of the study's findings?

• "Within a very short time both guards and prisoners were settling into their new roles" (Paragraph 10)

• "As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and assertive" (Paragraph 16)

• "the roles that people play can shape their behavior and attitudes" (Paragraph 19)

• "Many said they hadn't known this side of them existed or that they were capable of such things" (Paragraph 21)

PART A: What does the word "deindividuation" mean as it is used in paragraph 7?

• The process of adopting someone into a group.

• The process of physically torturing a person to make them feel inferior.

• The process of making someone feel uncomfortable and ashamed.

• The process of stripping someone of their identity.

PART B: Which phrase from paragraph 8 BEST supports the answer to Part A?

• "personal possessions removed and locked away"

• "referred to by their number only"

• "clothes comprised a smock"

• "chain around one ankle"

Which statement best captures the author's point of view and purpose in this article?

• Third person point of view allows the author to explore the ethical mistakes of a psychologist.

• Third person point of view allows the author to describe an influential psychological experiment.

• First person point of view allows the author to highlight his views on the proper and improper methods of psychological experiments.

• First person point of view allows the author to encourage readers to be careful of conforming to social roles