Asch's Study Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the Aim of Asch’s Study?
[2]

A
  • Wanted to see how social pressure from a majority could influence someone’s behaviour
  • Tested conformity using ‘visual perception task’
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2
Q

How many people took part in Asch’ Study? Who were those people?

A

123 male students

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3
Q

What was the Procedure of Asch’s Study?
[5]

A
  • 123 male students believed they were taking part in visual perception task
  • Line judgement task - there was three standard lines and one comparison line
  • He put real participiants with 6 other confeds. Real was always last or second last
  • Each person had to say their answer out loud. Answer was obvious
  • Critical trials
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4
Q

What was Findings of Asch’s Research?
[4]

A
  • 36.8 % conformed
  • 25% never conformed
  • 75% conformed at least once
  • In control only 1% was incorrect
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5
Q

What were conclusions of Asch’s Study?
[2]

A
  • Individual judements are affected by majority influnce
  • Participants conformed due to NSI and desire to avoid rejection
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6
Q

What were the three factors that Asch changed in conformity?

A
  1. Group Size
  2. Task Difficulty
  3. Unanimity
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7
Q

How did Unanimity affect Conformity in Asch’s Study?
[4]

A
  • Would non-conforming confed influence real person
  • When people less unanimous; confusion
  • The real conformed less often in the presence of a non conforming confed
  • Influence of majority; everyone unanimous
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8
Q

How did Group Size affect Conformity in Asch’s Study?
[4]

A
  • Wanted to vary group size to see if larger group = more conformity (Corulinear relationship)
  • With 3 confed + real, conformity rose to 31.8%
  • After 3, more confed made little difference
  • People can be easily influences
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9
Q

How did Task Difficulty affect Conformity in Asch’s Study?
[3]

A
  • Does making task harder increase conformity
  • When lines were very similiar; conformity increased
  • Natural to look at other people when unsure
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10
Q

Lab experiment

What is a Strength of Asch’s Study?
(lab experiment)
[3]

A
  • It’s a lab experiment
  • Extraneous and confounding variables are strictly controlled, meaning replication is easy
  • Successful replication increases reliablity
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11
Q

Supports NSI

What is a Strength of Asch’s Study?
(other studies support Asch’s research)
[5]

A
  • One strength is support for Asch’s research from other studies one effect of task difficulty
  • Lucas et al asked participants to solve ‘hard’ and ‘easy’ maths problems
  • Participants given answers from 3 other students (not real)
  • Participants conformed more often when problems were harder
  • Supports Asch
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12
Q

Low ecological validity

What is a Limitation of Asch’s Study?
(all participants were American men)
[5]

A
  • Asch’s participants were all American men
  • Other research say women may be conformist, because their more concerned about social relationships and being accepted
  • Also, USA is an individualist culture (people more concerned for themselves).
  • Similiar studies done in China (more collectivist cultures found conformity rates higher
  • Asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from other cultures
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13
Q

What is a Limitation of Asch’s Study?
[4]

A
  • Ethical issues
  • Deception - participants were tricked into thinking study was about perception not compliance
  • Not informed consent
  • Psychological harm after participants realised true aims of study
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