2: Research into Conformity (Asch)

Question 1

who did research into conformity?

Answer 1

Asch (1951)

Question 2

Description of research into conformity:
Aim

Answer 2

Asch (1951) aimed to test whether people would conform to group pressure, even if that meant giving a clearly wrong answer in an unambiguous line judgement task

Question 3

Description of research into conformity:
Procedure

Answer 3

• Laboratory experiment
• 123 American male undergraduates (sample)
• groups of 7
• all but one of the males were ‘confederates’: only one try participant being tested
• shown a series of lines; standard line and 3 comparison lines, one of which was the same length and the standard line
• Asch instructed confederates to unanimously give the same incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trials (critical trials)
• True participant always last but one to answer

Question 4

Description of research into conformity:
Findings

Answer 4

• mean conformity rate of 37%
• individual differences within the 37%: — 5% confirmed on every critical trial
  — 25% remained completely independent (going against the group majority and giving the correct answer in all 12 critical trials despite considerable group pressure
• control group of all pots tested individually only gave incorrect answers in 1% of trials

Question 5

Description of research into conformity:
Conclusion

Answer 5

Asch’s participants explained that one of the reasons that they agreed with the majority on an obviously wrong answer was to avoid standing out from the crowd. Asch concluded that his ppts were showing ‘compliance’

Question 6

Evaluation of Asch’s research into conformity:
Strengths

Answer 6

P: Asch’s research was well controlled
E: Controlled setting of laboratory made it easy to control EVs
E: Control lighting and lines to ensure participants could clearly judge length of lines
L: High internal validity, measured what it intended to measure (conformity)

P: Easy to replicate
E: Controlled setting of laboratory made easier to repeat in exact same way, adjusting variables each time to test their influence on conformity
E: Keep everything the same (standardised) but change variables such as the size of the group or task difficulty
L: allowed to test which variables affect conformity the most to gain a better understanding
E: Findings can be easily tested for reliability

Question 7

Evaluation of Asch’s research into conformity:
Limitations

Answer 7

P: Evidence against from Perrin & Spencer (1981)
E: Repeated Asch’s study 30 years later in Britain, found only 1 person conformed in 396 trials.
E: Concluded people don’t always conform as much as Asch’s OG study suggests
L: Lacks temporal validity

P: Low ecological validity
E: Although laboratory is controlled, it can be viewed as an artificial setting because it doesn’t represent real life
E: In real life people would usually be able to question why others were giving incorrect answers but Asch didn’t allow ppts to do this
L: Findings may not generalise to real life conformity settings and situations

P: High demand characteristics
E: Participants were aware they were taking part in a study so may have behaved unnaturally
E: May have tried to please Asch by behaving in a way they thought they were intended to by conformity
L: Lowers the study’s internal validity (not measuring what it intends to)

P: Ethical issue of deception
E: Asch’s study can be criticised for deliberately deceiving the participants
E: Asch told ppts that all of the people sat around the table were participants when they were really confederates - many ppts reported feeling embarrassed/foolish after the experiment
L: goes against ethical code of conduct
E: by using deception, also not possible to gain full informed consent until afterwards when they are told the truth in the debrief. Goes against the ethical code of conduct. However in defence of Asch, he wouldn’t have been able to obtain realistic results if he had not used deception