Asch's research KEYWORDS Flashcards
1
Q
what is group size?
A
- Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates (increased majority)
- conformity increased with group size but levelled off when majority was greater than 3
2
Q
What is unanimity?
A
- The extent to which all the members of the group agree
- In the study, it was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line
- (produced most conformity in naive participants)
3
Q
What is task difficulty?
A
- Asch’s task becomes more difficult when it is harder to work out the correct answer
- Conformity increases because naive participants assume the majority is more lily to have the right answer
4
Q
What was Asch’s study?
A
He got a group of between 6-8 confederates as well as a naive participant
They were shown a “standard line” and then were asked which of the “comparison lines” match this line
5
Q
What was the aim of the study?
A
to assess how much people will conform to the opinion of others even in a situation where the answer is certain
6
Q
What were the findings of the study?
A
- The naive participant gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time (75% of people conformed at least once)
- when interviewed after, most people said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI)
7
Q
what are the strengths of the study?
A
- allowed others such as William and Sogon (1984) to further develop the study (make it more valid)
- Asch has done more than most to increase our understanding of conformity
8
Q
What are the weaknesses of this study?
A
- society has changed since the study so it may mean that the Asch effect inset consistent across situations and time (not fundamental feature of human behaviour)
- Lab conditions so demand characteristics are possible
- findings don’t generalise to everyday situations
- only men were tested
- only Americans were tested (individualist culture rather than collectivist culture)
- the naive participants were deceived which is ethically wrong
