Aschs’ baseline study US 1951 Flashcards
Define beta bias
Where one theory is applied to all
What is the method to Asch’s experiment and what he recording?
A ppt was placed on the 5th interval seat, surrounded by confederates. The group were shown cards with three lines on and another card with a single line. They were asked to determine which of the three lines the single line matched.
He was recording how frequently the ppts conformed with the confederates when the confederates gave the same wrong answer.
What are the three results that were obtained from Asch’s study?
36.8% of the time ppts conformed with the confederates in the total number of trials (18 trials x each 123 person)
75% of the ppts conformed atleast once
25% of ppts never conformed, suggesting that som individuals show independent behaviour and are less influenced by the majority
What are the five cons to Asch’s study?
-lacks ecological validity as is a lab experiment
-deception ( they volunteered to partake in a eye sight test)
-only white undergraduate male students making generalisability harder
-broke informed consent
-lacks temporal validity
What did pernin + Spencer (1980) find with Asch’s study?
They replicated the study and couldn’t reach the same levels of conformity.
Concluded that the levels of conformity were elevated in the 50s US, where fears about a war with Russia were prevalent.
What is McCarthyism?
The political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence
What did frisk (2014) suggest about Asch’s study?
Suggested it lacks ecological validity as the group dont resemble the sort of groups that are experienced in the real world as it only used volunteered confederates.
What did smith and bond do and find out?
Investigated the level of conformity in 17 different countries.
Found that on average collectivist cultures had higher levels of conformity than individualistic ones.
Define collectivist and define individualistic and give examples
Collectivist - placing the group first e.g china/ japan
Individualistic - placing yourself first e.g uk / us
What else did smith and bond find out regarding conformity over time?
Found there has been a steady drop in level over time. In a correlational analysis they compared the date of the study with the level of conformity, finding a negative correlation where the conformity decreases as years increase.
