Asch's conformity study-social influence

Question 1

what was the sample for Aschs conformity experiment

Answer 1

123 American undergraduate males

Question 2

in the control trial how many of the responses given by participants were incorrect

Answer 2

0.04

Question 3

how many participants NEVER conformed

Answer 3

25%

Question 4

how many conformed to all 12 wrong answers

Answer 4

5%

Question 5

for the 12 critical trials ——% of responses given by participants were incorrect

Answer 5

32%

Question 6

what were the undergraduates apparently recruited for

Answer 6

vision test

Question 7

how many times out of 18 trials would confederates give the incorrect answer

Answer 7

12/18 trials

Question 8

how many participants tested in the control group

Answer 8

36

Question 9

post interview findings- what were the reasons for the participants to conform

Answer 9

distortion of perception-ppts started to perceive the lines differently

distortion of judgement- feelings of doubt about their out judgement

distortion of action- majority continued to trust their own perception but changed their behaviour to avoid disapproval

Question 10

What is the Asch effect

Answer 10

normative social influence. When individual judgement is influenced by majority opinions even when the majority is obviously wrong.

Question 11

strengths of Aschs study

Answer 11

paradigm of conformity research

established a scientific procedure

reliable-quantitative data and a lab experiment

Question 12

weaknesses of Aschs study

Answer 12

Temporal validity- times have changed Perrin and spencer , in 1980 only 1 in 396 trials conformed

lacks generalisability- only American undergraduate males

lacks ecological validity-artificial situation and task—> demand characteristics, does not represent real life.

2/3 participants did not conform

Question 13

contemporary study that backs Asch uppp

Answer 13

Mori and Arai 2010
asch without actors- overlapping filter glasses which changed the view of the stimulus only, minority participants answered incorrectly 19.6% of the time compared with control of 8.2%

Question 14

research support for the effects of task difficulty and a counterpoint

Answer 14

Todd Lucas et al -

ppts were given answers from 3 other students (not real) Ppts conformed more when the questions were harder

BUT

ppts with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence.
so this demonstrates it is individuals factors along with situational ones.

Question 15

Variables investigated by Asch

Answer 15

Group size
Unanimity
Task Difficulty

Question 16

describe effect of group size on conformity

Answer 16

When group size increases so does conformity but only up to a certain point. With a majority of 3 confederates conformity rose to 30%

Question 17

state in what order were answers given by the real ppts

Answer 17

last or second last

Question 18

describe the effect of unanimity on conformity

Answer 18

when the participant was joined by another participant/ disaffected confederate conformity fell from 32% to 5.5 %

if the dissenter gave ANOTHER WRONG answer conformity fell to 9%