Asch Research Flashcards
what is social influence?
the process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours
what are types of social influence?
conformity (eg. fitting in with those around you), obedience (eg. following rules you are told) and minority influence (eg. when one person stands up against a group to change their opinion)
what is independent behaviour?
someone who doesn’t change their behaviour in response to other people’s actions
what is conformity ?
a change in a person’s behaviour and/or opinion because of a real or imagined pressure from a person of group of people. the change can be permanent or temporary and public or private and public
what was Asch’s baseline study?
- it was completed in 1951 by Solomon Asch
- Asch recruited 123 American men in a group with other apparent participants
- each participant saw 2 large white cards on each trial and there was a line ‘X’ on one and 3 other comparison lines, ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ and one line is clearly the same length
- all were sat around a table and the real participant was always seated last and the rest were confederates who gave an incorrect scripted response
- there was also a control group of 36 participants who were individually tested on 20 trials and the error rate was 0.4%
what were Asch’s baseline findings?
on average, the genuine participants gave the incorrect answer 36.8% of the time and only 25% of participants never gave an incorrect answer out of the 12 trials
what were Asch’s variables?
group size, unanimity (all confederated agreeing) and task difficulty
What was the pattern for group size?
As the number of confederates increased, the rate of conformity increased up to 7 confederates, then the rate begins to decrease as number continues to increase.
What was the pattern for unanimity?
When the unanimity is broke and one confederate didn’t conform, conformity rate dropped to 9% and the power of the group decreased. This also supports NSI as participants did not want to be different and when they were not alone, conformity decreased.
What was the pattern for task difficultly?
As the task difficulty increased, the rate of conformity increased. This supports ISI as participants were unsure but they had the desire to be correct so they looked to the group for answers and were more likely to conform.
Does Asch’s study have population validity?
No as it was 123 male undergraduates so it was not a very diverse sample and this means you cannot generalise findings to wider population.
Is Asch’s study reliable?
Yes as it could be replicated as it is a simple experiment, but it is low as other experiments didn’t show similar results.
Does Asch’s study have ecological validity?
No because it was done inside a lab under research conditions so it was not a real-life situation so people’s behaviour may be different than if they were in the real world.
Does Asch’s study have internal validity?
Yes, as it measured conformity and how other variables effect conformity such as task difficulty
Does Asch’s study have external validity?
No as the experiment is not a usual activity so it is hard to generalise
