Asch's study Flashcards
What was the aim of Asch’c study
To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers
What was the procedure of Asch’s study?
-Asch used a sample of 123 American male undergrad volunteers who were told they were taking part in a visual perception test
-in small groups (7-9) they were shown a series of lines (a standard line and 3 comparisons, one of which was the same length as the standard line) all but one of the participants were confederates
-Asch instructed the confederates to give the same incorrect answer on 12 out of the 18 trials-critical trials , with the real participant being the last to say their response
-A control group was created for comparison purposes, 36 participants who were tested individually on 20-done to test how accurate individual judgements were
What were the findings of the study?
-control group had an error rate of 0.04%
-critical trials had 32% conformity
-75% of participants conformed at least once
-5% of participants conformed on all trails
What was the conclusion of the study?
the judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions, even when the majority are obviously wrong
Why was group size significant?
Why was unanimity a factor?
Why did task difficulty matter?
What were the variables investigated by Asch?
task difficulty
unanimity
group size
What were the ethical issues with Asch’s study
what is a limitation of Asch’s study?
What is a strength of Asch’s original study
What is a limitation of Asch’s original study?
What are the reasons for conformity Asch found from the post-investigation interviews?
distortion of action-publicly conformed to avoid ridicule
distortion of perception- some believed their perception was wrong
distortion of judgement-participants had doubts about their own perception and so followed group
