4.1.1 Asch's study

Question 1

What type of study is Asch’s?

Answer 1

Asch’s study is a BASELINE study- it’s one that later studies are compared to.

Question 2

Year of Asch’s study

Answer 2

1951

Question 3

Asch’s method

Answer 3

Line-judgement task - participants choose which line is the same length as the target line

Question 4

Variables Asch investigated

Answer 4

Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty

Question 5

Variables - group size

Answer 5

“whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group”

·He varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15

·He found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity

·Conformity increased with group size but only up to a point

·With 3 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8% (32%) but the presence of more confederates made little difference

Question 6

Variables - unanimity

Answer 6

“whether the presence of a non-conforming person would affect the naïve participant’s conformity”

·He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates

·In one variation he gave the correct answer and in another he gave the wrong answer

·The naïve participant conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter (who gave the correct answer)

·The presence of a dissenter appeared to free the naïve participant to behave more independently

·Suggests influence of the majority depends on it being unanimous

Question 7

Variables - task difficulty

Answer 7

“whether making the task harder would affect the degree of conformity”

·He increased the difficulty by making the stimulus line and comparison line more similar to each other

·It became harder for the naïve participants to see the differences

·Asch found that conformity increased

·This could be because the answer was now more ambiguous

·The naïve participant looked for guidance and judged whether you are right/wrong (Informational Social Influence, ISI)

Question 8

Asch’s research evaluation - limitations

Answer 8

·Task and situation were artificial

·Participants knew they were in a study and may have just gone along with what was expected - this is called demand characteristics

·Task was trivial so no reason not to conform

·Susan Fiske (2014) - “Asch’s groups were not very groupy” - they did not resemble groups that we would experience in everyday life

·Therefore, can we use these findings to generalise the real world?

Question 9

Asch’s research evaluation - limited applications

Answer 9

·Asch’s participants were American men

·Neto (1995) suggests that women may be more conformist - more concerned with social relationships and being accepted

·America is an individualistic culture - people are more concerned about themselves rather than social groups

·Bond and Smith (1996) conduced similar studies in collectivist cultures (e.g., China where social group is more important). They found conformity rates higher

·Therefore, Asch’s findings tell us little about women and people from some cultures

Question 10

Asch’s research evaluation - research support

Answer 10

·Lucas et al (2006) “easy” and “hard” maths problems

·The participants conformed more often when the problems were harder

·This supports Asch’s claim that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity

Question 11

Asch’s research evaluation - social support

Answer 11

• The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same.
• In Asch’s research, the presence of the confederate giving the correct the correct answer, gave the naïve participant more confidence to give the correct answer.