Asch's research-conformity Flashcards
What was the procedure?
Ken card had a standard line and the other card had 3 comparison lines
Who were the participants?
123 American males
How many confederates were in each group?
6-8
How many critical trials were there?
12/16 trials
What were the findings?
75% of participants confirmed on at least one of the trials
What did qaulatative data reveal?
Participants conformed to avoid rejection
What were the three variations Asch used?
Group size, unamity and task difficulty
What happened when group size was varied?
When there were 3 confederates there was a 32% conformity rate and less there was very low conformity
What happened when unamity was varied
When the participant was given a partner conformity reduced significantly
What happened when the task difficulty was varied?
Conformity increased when the lines were similar due to ISI
What happened when Perimeter and Spence repeated the experiment 30 years later?
Only 1 out of 396 students conformed, this may be due to change is social norms of the engineering students felt for confident
Can we genralise the findings?
No as it only uses American males
Does the experiment have good ecological validity?
No as the task lack mundane realism
What did Williams and Soon find was a factor in conformity?
When the group was friends conformity was higher
What were the ethical issues?
Selection however participants were debreifed