ASCH VARIATIONS AO1 - A03

Question 1

GS

Answer 1

• by adding more confederates, and found that conformity increases but only up to a certain point,
• if group size is 3 or more conformity does not increase much.

Question 2

unanimity

Answer 2

• by adding another non-conforming confederate,
• found that having just one confederate who didn’t conform to the group reduced conformity by approx. 25%- so conformity
• decreases if there is disagreement, the individual then behaves more independently.

Question 3

task difficulty

Answer 3

• Asch tested task difficulty,
• by making the comparison line more similar to each other in length,
• found conformity increased if the task was difficult

Question 4

One limitation of Asch’s study is that it’s not generalisable.

Answer 4

• For example, he only did the test on 123 male students, from the US. This doesn’t give an accurate representation of the whole population.
• Therefore, Asch’s study lacks population validity and so cannot be used to explain the behaviour of the wider population.
• Therefore, this decreases the validity of the theory.
• Furthermore, it’s argued that Asch’s study contains beta bias (he minimises the differences between male and females)
• so we cannot actually generalise the findings to the wider population as it doesn’t account for females

Question 5

One strength of Asch’s study is that it’s replicable.

Answer 5

• For example, it was done in lab conditions which are easily replicable.
• This is an advantage as we are able to re-do the investigation and see if these results have changed overtime to see if they are still accurate.
• Therefore, due to the use of a standardised procedure, we are able to increase the reliabilityof his research.
• This is an advantage it’s consistent with the aims of science as we are able to gain empirical evidence due to the standardised and highly
  controlled procedure, and so increases psychology’s credibility as a science .
• However, Perin and Spencer repeated their study with engineering students and found that they didn’t conform easily as they were educated and confident in their answers.
• This makes us question the reliability of the study as research opposes what Asch found, and therefore decreases the validity of the study

Question 6

One strength of Asch’s study is that it has useful real life applications.

Answer 6

• For example, juries knowing why people conform is useful as we can implement procedures and try to make our society a more fair/just place.
• For instance, adding unanimous voting/more private opinions. Also, this helps us understand the
  minds of people more to see why they do certain actions, or act the way in which they do.
• This is an advantage Asch’s study has useful applications to real life, and helps us understand further conformity in real life

Question 7

One limitation of Asch’s study is that it’s unethical.

Answer 7

• For example, Asch’s participants were lied to and he deceived them into thinking it was just a vision test when it wasn’t. he tested their conformity, and didn’t get their full consent which is unethical.
• This is a disadvantage Asch didn’t take the participants’ rights or
  feelings into consideration in the way psychologists would do today.
• However, some may argue Asch’s experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results