Asch's research

Question 1

Explain Asch’s procedure

Answer 1

123 American male students were asked to match a standard line to one of three comparison lines.
Each naive participant was tested with a group of 6 to 8 confederates.
Of the 18 trials, the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 critical trials.

Question 2

What were the results of Asch’s study?

Answer 2

75% of participants conformed on at least one of the 12 trials.
Most said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI)

Question 3

Name three of the variations of Asch’s study

Answer 3

Group size - As the size of the majority rose, the conformity rates also rose, until there is a majority of three when increasing the majority made little difference.

Unanimity - The presence of a dissenting confederate reduced conformity.

Task difficulty - the comparison lines were made more similar in length, increasing task difficulty. This increased conformity. (ISI)

Question 4

evaluation - Asch’s experiement was done over 50 years ago.

Answer 4

The study may be outdated.
It was repeated in the 1980’s with enginerering student in the UK.
Only 1 student conformed in a total of 396 trials.
People may be less conformist today.
This means its not consistant across situations and time.

Question 5

evaluation - artificial

Answer 5

• demand charateristics.

- didn’t resemble everyday situations so cannot be generalised to these situations.

Question 6

evaluation - participants used in sample

Answer 6

• only male Americans used as participants.
• similar studies in collectivist cultures found higher conformity rates. these cultures are more oriented around group needs.
• women may be more concerned about social relationships than men, so may be more conformist
• Asch’s results cannot be generalised.

Question 7

Evaluation - ethical issues

Answer 7

• naive participants were deceived, so couldn’t give informed consent.