Asch's research on Conformity

Question 1

Give Asch’s Procedure for Conformity

Answer 1

-Showed PPTS 2 white cards. One card was ‘standard line’ other card was 3 ‘comparisons line’. One of these 3 lines were same length as standard line. PPTS were asked to name the line which was the same as the standard line.

Question 2

What kind PPTS did Asch’s study include?

How were they put in the group? What it contained?

Answer 2

• 123 American male undergraduates

- Naive ppts, put in group of 6 to 8 confeds. They were not aware of this.

Question 3

What happened on the first trial in Asch’s study?

Answer 3

• First trials- All Confeds gave right answ then started making errors.
• All confeds instruced to give same wrong answ
• All confeds took part in 12/18 trials where they gave the wrong answ.

Question 4

Findings of Asch Study

• Percentage of naive ppts that got it wrong.
• % of overall ppts that did not conform
• % of ppts that did conform once

Answer 4

Percentage of naive ppts that got it wrong.
-36.8%
overall ppts not conform
-25%
ppts that did conform once
-75%

Question 5

Why did the ppts conform in Asch’s study?

Answer 5

TO avoid rejection - NSI

Question 6

Name 3 of Asch’s variations

Answer 6

1) Group size
2) Unanimity
3) Task difficulty.

Question 7

Why Asch did variations?

Answer 7

Investigate in conditions that lead to increase/decrease in conformity.

Question 8

What Asch found in the group size?

Answer 8

• 3 confeds conformity to the wrong ans rose to 31.8%
• Suggesting that small majority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted there is no need for a majority of more than 3 to confrom.

Question 9

What Asch found in the Unanimity?

Answer 9

• Introduced a confed who disagreed with others, sometimes giving wrong answ and sometimes correct answ
• Dissenting confed reduced conformity by a quarter leading to naive ppts behaving more independantly.

Question 10

What Asch found in the Task difficulty?

Answer 10

• He made a line-judging task more difficult by making stimulus line and the comparison more similar.
• Found conformity increased on those conditions.
• Suggests the ISI plays great role when task is harder. As we look for other pple for guidance assume they are right, we are wrong.

Question 11

Definition of Unanimity

Answer 11

-All the members of group agree with one another.

Question 12

Who repeated Asch’s study?

Answer 12

Perrin and Spencer 1980

Question 13

What kind of PPTS did Perrin and Spencer’s procedure have?

Answer 13

-Engineering UK students

Question 14

How many confromed in Perrin and Spencer’s study?

And why is this?

Answer 14

1 out of 396 conformed

-Because engineering students feel more confident when measuring lines thus less conformists.

Question 15

Why do you think in Asch’s study pple conformed? And What do you think of our society now? Relating to Perrin and Spencer’s study?

Answer 15

• In 1950s America pple more likely to conform to establish social norms.
• Society changed - pple less likely to conform, alot has changed. This is the reason for Perrin and Spencer 1980 study.

Question 16

Give a limitation of Asch’s study?

-About society changing

Answer 16

-As society has changed and PPLE less likely to conform, means for Asch: effect is not consistent across situations and across time meaning it is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.

Question 17

Give another limitation of Asch’s study?

-Artificial task

Answer 17

• Artificial situation/task
• PPTS knew they were in research study and gone along with demand characteristics. However their was no reason to confrom.

Question 18

Give another limitation of Asch’s study?

-Groups

Answer 18

• Naive ppts were in ‘groups’ but it did not resemble groups part of our everyday life. According to Friske 2014
• Consequences of conformity might be important when we interact in groups in more direct way.

Question 19

Limitation of findings in Asch’s study?

-What gender the PPTS were?

Answer 19

• All MEN tested in Asch’s study.
• If women were tested they may have been more conformists as they may be more concerned with social relationships + being accepted.

Question 20

Limitation of findings in Asch’s study?

-Culture

Answer 20

• Only Men from US which is an individualist culture. - Where men are more concerned about themsleves than a socail group
• Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures e.g. china -where social group is more important than indiviual to them.
• Shows that conformity levels are higher than Asch found. His findings only applyto American Males as he didn’t take gender/culture into account

Question 21

Explain unanimity in relation to conformity

Answer 21

Unanimity refers to the extent that members of a majority agree with one another, and was identified by Asch as a variable that affects conformity.

Question 22

Àpart from unanimity identify 1 other variable that affects confromity.
Support your ans with evidence

Answer 22

Group size is another variable that affects conformity. Asch found that a group agreement of 3 confederates is enough for a naive participant to conform. 3 confeds who got wrong ans rose to 31.8% conformity rose.

Question 23

Outline how Task difficulty as a variable in relation to conformity and give evidence to support your answer.

Answer 23

Asch identified task difficulty as a variable that affects conformity. He found that when he made the line judgement task more difficult, conformity levels increased, as the participant was more likely to believe that the confederates were right. This further relates to normative social influence which plays a greater role as pple look to other pple for guidance.

Question 24

Describe Asch’s study of confromity. Include details of what he found and what he did.

Answer 24

-Asch’s proceduer naive PPTS of 123 American male undergraduates, put in group of 6 to 8 confeds. They were not aware of this. 2 white cards. One card was ‘standard line’ other card was 3 ‘comparisons line’. One of these 3 lines were same length as standard line. PPTS were asked to name the line which was the same as the standard line. -First trials- All Confeds gave right answ then started making errors. All confeds instruced to give same wrong answ All confeds took part in 12/18 trials where they gave the wrong answ.
His findings were the Percentage of naive ppts that got it wrong 36.8%. overall ppts who did not not conform were 25% however ppts that did conform at least once was 75%.

Question 25

Describe Asch’s research into conformity

Answer 25

Asch’s proceduer naive PPTS of 123 American male undergraduates, put in group of 6 to 8 confeds. They were not aware of this. 2 white cards. One card was ‘standard line’ other card was 3 ‘comparisons line’. One of these 3 lines were same length as standard line. PPTS were asked to name the line which was the same as the standard line. -First trials- All Confeds gave right answ then started making errors. All confeds instruced to give same wrong answ All confeds took part in 12/18 trials where they gave the wrong answ.
Asch used a biased sample of 123 male students from America. Therefore, we cannot generalise the results to other populations, for example female students, and we are unable to conclude if female students would have conformed in a similar way to male students. As a result Asch’s sample lacks population validity and further research is required to determine whether males and females conform differently

Question 26

1 Evaluation for Asch’s research
-POPULATION VALIDITY
(Evaluate Asch’s research)

Answer 26

Asch used a biased sample of 123 male students from America. Therefore, we cannot generalise the results to other populations, for example female students, and we are unable to conclude if female students would have conformed in a similar way to male students. As a result Asch’s sample lacks population validity and further research is required to determine whether males and females conform differently.

Question 27

2nd Evaluation for Asch’s research
-Ecological Validity , artificial tasks
(Evaluate Asch’s research)

Answer 27

Furthermore, it could be argued that Asch’s experiment has low levels of ecological validity. Asch’s test of conformity, a line judgement task, is an artificial task, which does not reflect conformity in everyday life. Consequently, we are unable to generalise the results of Asch to other real life situations, such as why people may start smoking or drinking around friends, and therefore these results are limited in their application to everyday life.

Question 28

3rd Evaluation for Asch’s research
-ETHICS
(Evaluate Asch’s research)

Answer 28

Finally, Asch’s research is ethically questionable. He broke several ethical guidelines, including: deception and protection from harm. Asch deliberately deceived his participants, saying that they were taking part in a vision test and not an experiment on conformity. Although it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, Asch’s experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results. If the participants were aware of the true aim they would have displayed demand characteristics and acted differently. In addition, Asch’s participants were not protected from psychological harm and many of the participants reporting feeling stressed when they disagreed with the majority. However, Asch interviewed all of his participants following the experiment to overcome this issue.