Asch Flashcards
Revise
What did Asch aim to do?
find out if people tend to conform to the majority
Did Asch want to find this out in an unambiguous situation?
Yes - answers always clear
How can Asch’s study be placed in a historical context?
Psychologists keen to prevent events like Holocaust from happening again. they thought these events were happening due to social pressure and conformity
How can Asch’s study be placed in an academic context?
Sherif (1936) got pps to judge how far a light had moved. Few days later they got into small groups and judged again. 3 pps reached a common estimate
How else can Asch’s study be placed in an academic context?
Sherif and Jeness got pps to estimate no. of beans in a jar. They did this in an ambiguous situation, but Asch saw this as a problem
What was Asch’s research method?
Observation under controlled conditions
How many pps were there?
123 “true” pps
Were the pps male or female?
Male
Where were the pps from?
3 USA colleges
How many confederates were in a group with 1 true pp?
7-9
Where were the true pp sat?
Second to last
What were the pps shown and what did they have to do?
a standard line and 3 separate lines
They had to match one of the 3 lines with the standard line
How many trials were there for each group?
18
How many “critical” trials were there for each group?
12
What was the condition called when confederates made accurate judgements?
control condition
What were the 3 variations Asch made?
1) group size varied (1-15)
2) allowed one confederate to answer truthfully
3) a pp who gave wrong, but different to other confedereates
What was used to see why pps conformed?
An interview
How did Asch address some ethical issues?
By debriefing his pps
What % of pps conformed to the incorrect answer in the “critical” trials?
37%
What % of the pps conformed at least once?
75%
What % of the pps never conformed?
25%
What % of pps always conformed?
5%
What % of pps made mistakes in the control condition when confederates never gave wrong answers?
1%
How confederates were there in a group when pps never conformed?
1
What was the group size when conformity stopped?
3
What did Asch also find when pps had an ally?
Conformity declined
What were the 3 things that pps reported?
1) they conformed because they didnt want to spoil the results
2) they conformed because they thought their answers were wrong
3) they didn’t conform because they were confident in their answers
What makes some people conform?
Social pressure
What did Asch conclude from this observation?
Some people can resist social pressure and remain independant
If the majority isn’t unanimous, what happens to conformity?
It declines
What’s a huge concern in society?
The tendency to conform
Was reliability a strength for Asch?
Yes - conditions were controlled & could be repeated
Was validity a strength for Asch?
No - artificial conditions & didn’t reflect real life
Why was Asch’s sample strong?
Large number of pps
Why was Asch’s sample weak?
All male, student volunteers and came from one social group - cannot generalise
What data was produced from Asch’s study?
Both - Quantitative: enables comparisons
Qualitative: depth
Why was Asch’s study problematic in terms of ethics?
“True” pps didnt give fully informed consent & were distressed so werent protected from harm
