2 Flashcards
summary asch
a second study by Asch (1951) used a laboratory experiment with repeated measures and volunteer sampling and took 123 American male students and informed them they were taking part in a study concerning ‘visual perception’
participants were tested in groups of 7-9 people (only 1 person was a genuine participant, the others were confederates) and faced a screen
they were asked to judge which of the 3 comparison lines was the same length as a standard line
all those taking part were asked to make their judgements verbally and in order, where the genuine participant was placed in either the penultimate or last position
although the perception task was unambiguous (there was always a clear answer), confederates were instructed to give the same obviously ‘wrong’ answer on 12 trials out of 18 (known as critical trials)
the participant’s conformity rate was recorded by counting the number of times the genuine participant gave the same obviously wrong answer
asch found that participants conformed in 36.8% of critical trials (5% of participants conformed in every critical trial and 75% of participants conformed in at least one critical trial).
interviews after the experiment showed that the majority of the genuine participants knew they were giving the wrong answer in the critical trials; however, they chose to do so to fit in with the majority group
this suggests participants showed a short-term, public change in their behaviour, even though they privately disagreed, in order to avoid conflict with the majority group, giving evidence for compliance
this can be explained by normative social influence because participants wanted to be linked or accepted by the majority group as they feared rejection or social exclusion
limitation asch
a limitation of asch’s research is that it is affected by the time in which it is peformed
this is when factors such as how important conformity is to people will affect their behaviour
this is because perrin and spencer (1980) found just one conforming response in 396 trials when the study was replicated using engineering students, but similar levels of conformity to Asch when youth on probation were studied
this suggests that conformity is not consistent over time and settings and more likely if the perceived costs of not conforming are high. in these cases, in 1950’s America, when individuality was less accepted or in the behaviour of youths wanting to demonstrate good behaviour
limitation asch 2
a further limitation of this study is that the results may be due to demand characteristics
which is when participants are likely to perceive the demands of the study, decreasing the internal validity of research because they are more likely to show unnatural behaviour
this is because the task was trivial and artificial meaning there was no reason for not conforming and the participants were asked to behave individually without direct interactions of groups in everyday life.
therefore, the findings may tell us very little about conformity in situations where the consequences of conformity are important and where we interact with groups more directly
limitation asch 3
a final limitation of this study is that the participants experienced deception
which is when participants are misled by the procedure of the study
this is because the participants believed that the other people involved in the study were genuine participants when in fact they were not
however, this ethical cost should be weighed against the benefits of the study, which highlighted people’s susceptibility to conformity within a group
