Asch’s research into conformity

Question 1

what was the aim of Asch’s study

Answer 1

to investigate conformity in an unambiguous setting

Question 2

what was Asch’s procedure

Answer 2

• lab based standardised (artificial controlled environment, everyone does the same thing) experiment using the line judgement tool
• 123 male american ppts (volunteers)
• 1 ppt, 7 confederates (an actor who knows the aim)
• 12/18 critical trials → confederates said the wrong answer (pre decided)

Question 3

what were the findings of Asch’s studies

Answer 3

• 25% no conformity
• 75% conformity on one trial
• 37% conform on all trials
• Ppts aid to NSI

Question 4

what were the variables in Asch’s second study

Answer 4

• group size
• unanimity
• task difficulty

Question 5

how did the group size affect conformity

Answer 5

• Asch found that conformity tends to increase as the size of the group increases
• With one other confederate in the group, conformity was 3% with two others it increased to 13% and with three or more it was around 32%
• He found little changed in conformity once the group size reached 4-5
• 3 = considered the optimal group size for conformity to occur

Question 6

how did unanimity affect conformity

Answer 6

• Asch was interested in whether a non-conformist would affect the naïve pp’s conformity
• He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other
• This led to reduced conformity
• Enabled the real pp to behave more independently

Question 7

how did task difficulty affect conformity

Answer 7

• Asch made the line-judging task more difficult to judge the effect
• When the comparison lines (e.g. A,B. C) were made more similar in length, it was harder to judge the correct answer
• When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for confirmation – informational social influence
• Conformity increased under these conditions

Question 8

what were the +ve AO3 points for Asch’s study

Answer 8

• Lab experiment
• Standardised

Question 9

what were the -ve AO3 points for Asch’s study

Answer 9

• Perrin + Spencer
• Demand characteristics - a ppt changes their behaviour based on what they think the experiment is looking for
• Lacks population validity

Question 10

expand on the -ve AO3 point Perrin + Spencer

Answer 10

• carried out Asch’s study 25 years later with engineering students and only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials.
  Asch’s study lacks temporal validity - it’s only valid in the time period it was conducted

Question 11

expand on the -ve AO3 point population validity

Answer 11

• the research was only conducted on men and cannot be generalised to women
• Asch carried out research in the USA, an individualistic culture - Research says conformity works differently in different cultures