2. Asch Research

Question 1

Asch Setup Description:

Answer 1

• Unambigous situation
• Used 50 American males
• 6-8 confederates
• First 6 (control trials) gave the correct answer
• Last 12 (critical trials) gave the wrong answer

Question 2

Asch baseline findings:

Answer 2

Overall conformity: 32%
At-least-once: 75%

Question 3

Asch variation group size results:

Answer 3

Results: Increased until 3 where it stayed at around 32%

Question 4

Asch unanimity results and method:

Answer 4

Method: Dissenting confederate sometimes gave the right answer
Results: Conformity dropped

Question 5

Asch task difficulty results

Answer 5

Conformity increased due to ISI

Question 6

Give 3 negatives of Asch research

Answer 6

• Result of the time: 1950s America was conformist due to post way attitude. Perrin and Spencer found only 1 case of conformity across hundreds of trials
  T: Lack of temporal validity
  CC: Perrin and Spencer test was on Engineering students who are inherintly less likely to conform
• Situation and task where artificial: Very simple task, with strangers, saying answers out loud
  T: Low external validity
• Only American males: Women are usually more conformist, collectivist cultures are more conformist
  T: Lack of generalisability