ACTUAL Exam Questions and CORRECT
Answers
What was the aim of the experiment? - CORRECT ANSWER - Do prison guards behave
brutally because they have sadistic personalities, or is it the situation that created such
behaviour?
How did they get volunteers for the experiment? - CORRECT ANSWER - they put an
advert into the local newspaper for male volunteers to be in a 'psychological study of prison life'
When was the Stanford prison experiment conducted? - CORRECT ANSWER - August
1971
How many participants were there? - CORRECT ANSWER - 24 male volunteers
What tests did the participants have to pass to be in the experiment? - CORRECT
ANSWER - The participants went through extensive psychological tests and only those
deemed 'emotionally stable' were selected
How were the roles selected? - CORRECT ANSWER - The students were randomly
assigned the roles of guards or prisoners
What happened to those 'prisoners' on the morning of the start of the experiment? - CORRECT
ANSWER - They were arrested by the local police at their houses, blindfolded and taken
to the mock prison to heighten the realism of the study
What happened to the prisoners when they arrived at the mock prison? - CORRECT
ANSWER - They were strip-searched, deloused and issued a uniform and given a number
to replace their name