Asch Flashcards
What was the aim of the study?
How group pressure affects conformity to group tasks with an obvious answer
AO1 of study
8 students were arranged around a table however only only of them was a real participant and the other 7 were confederates. The teacher would draw three lines on the board and the students has to say which line matched a different line. The students answered aloud in turn, and the confederates were told to give the same incorrect answer. The real participant was placed second to last so he could hear what the others were saying
How many participants conformed at least once
75%
Stat for when there were no confederates just the participants answering
Less than 1% got there answers wrong
What was the average conformity rate
36.8%
What was the affect of group size
Conformity increases with group size until 12 where it stays the same
What was the effect of social support
When there was a a dissenter conformity dropped to 5%
Effect of task difficulty
As task difficulty increased so did conformity
Pros
Task was done with different variables
Research support from Lucas et al (task difficulty) (increases reliability)
Cons
Laboratory setting creates artificial environment (lacks ecological validity)
Lacks generalisability due to all similar age, white males,
Demand characteristics decrease validity
Ethics bad cause people were deceived
