(2) 🧑🧑🧒🧒 variables affecting conformity, Asch Flashcards
when was Asch’s line study?
1951
who participated in this study, and what were they deceived to believe?
• 123 american male undergraduates
• visual perception task but instead, tested with 7-9 confederates on conformity and majority influence.
what was the procedure?
• two cards: one with a standard line, second with three comparison lines, with one the same length as the standard line.
• group asked on 18 trials which comparison line was the same as the standard and were expected to answer aloud.
• on 12 ‘critical’ trails, confederates gave clearly wrong answers placing the naïve (genuine) participant, often seated at or towards the end of group, in a challenging situation of social pressure.
what were the findings?
• control group had an error rate of 0.04%, demonstrating how obvious the correct answers were.
despite this,
• on 12 critical trials, conformity was 32%: 75% confirmed at least once and 5% conformed all 12 times.
how can you describe the findings of Asch’s study?
the Asch effect: Ps experienced distortion of action to avoid rejection, as admitted by Ps in post interviews (NSI).
what were the variations Asch investigated?
• group size
• unamity
• task difficulty
what were the results and findings of altering group size?
• 3% conformity with 1 confederate
•13% with two
• 33% with three, (no increase in % with more)
results: three or more is needed for influence to be exerted
what were the results and findings of altering unamity size?
• if one confederate gives the correct response (disagreeing with the majority) conformity drops to 5.5%
• social support can decrease conformity, gives confidence to do the same
what were the results and findings of altering task difficulty?
• by making stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length, conformity increases
• due to ISI because as task becomes more ambiguous tasks we tend to look to others for guidance, assuming they’re right.
✅ - research support
E: Rosander (2012), Ps conformed when online confederates provided wrong answers to logic and general knowledge questions posted on Facebook and Twitter. Conformity reached 52.6%, which increased when more difficult questions were shown.
E: Asch’s research relevant today —even in non face to face situations the desire to conform for normative social reasons is still present.
❌ - research to criticise Asch + 🦄
E: replication study with British engineering students, Perrin and Spencer (1980) found in nearly 396 trials, only one student conformed. America was a conformist time in the 1950’s, but as society has changed, people may be less conformist today.
E: lack of temporal validity. Asch effect not consistent across situations or across time; not fundamental feature of human behaviour
🦄: biassed sample. Ps were engineering students so more familiar with measurements than general population. low external validity
❌ - lacks generalisability
E: androcentric, only men tested. other research suggests women may be more conformist as they’re more concerned about social relationships. ethnocentric, all Ps from America, an individualist culture. conformity rates could have been higher in cultures such as China.
E: limited applicability to women or non-Western cultures as lacks pop validatiy
❌ - ethical issues + 🦄
E: the naive Ps were deceived as they thought they were partaking in visual perception test with other people (the confederates), who they believed were genuine Ps like themselves. subject to psychological distress or discomfort when true nature of the study discovered
E: gives psychological research a negative rep, could impact ability to recruit Ps for future research
🦄 - Asch’s research provided valuable insights and contributed significantly to the understanding of human behaviour in social contexts.
