Conformity Flashcards
What is social influence?
When the attitudes beliefs or behaviours of an individual are changed by the presence or action of others
What is conformity?
giving into group pressure
- adopting the attitudes and beliefs of people in a particular group in response to pressure
What was the aim of Asch’s study
to see if ppts would conform to majority social influence and give incorrect answers on a task even when the correct answer is obvious
What was the method of Asch’s study?
- 123 male American students were used.
- all ppts except one were confederates and the actual ppt called out their answer 2nd to last
They were asked to take part in a vision test. The participants sat around a table and were shown two cards. One had one vertical line, the ‘standard line,’ and the other had three lines of different lengths. - The task was to call out which of the three lines was the same length as the standard line. The correct answer was always obvious.
- confederates gave unanimous wrong answers on 12 out of the 18 trials (critical trials)
What were the results of Asch’s study?
- the ppt gave the wrong answer on 36.8% of the critical trials
- 25% of the ppts didn’t conform on any trials which means 75% conformed at least once
- when ppts were interviewed most said they conformed to avoid rejection
What was the conclusion of Asch’s study?
Asch concluded the ppts exhibited a distortion of action - they knew the right answer but conformed to the majority to avoid ridicule
What is a strength of Asch study?
high control
What are limitations of Asch’s study?
- limited sample
- artificial task
- individual differences
Evaluate high control as a strength of Asch’s study
P: uses experimental method so has high control over extraneous variables and can establish cause and effect
E: uses lab experiment so the researcher can be confident that IV (confederates answers) is causing the DV (ppts answers)
E: strength because we can be confident that results are not being affected by confounding variables
Evaluate a limited sample as a limitation of Asch’s study
P: low population validity
E: Ppts were American male students. The study could also be criticised for being gender biased and not representative of female behaviour. Other research suggests women may be more conformist because they’re more concerned about social relationships and being accepted
E: Limitation because results about conformity may not be able to be generalised to the behaviours of others, for example, females or people that aren’t students. Therefore the study has low external validity
Evaluate the use of an artificial task as a limitation of Asch’s study
P: Low ecological validity
E: Ppts knew they were in a research study and may have gone along with what was expected, showing demand characteristics The task of identifying lines was trivial and there was no reason not to conform, and the task doesn’t reflect real life conformity
Fiske suggested that Asch’s group weren’t very ‘groupy’ and didn’t resemble groups we experience in everyday life.
E: Limitation because the results may be difficult to generalise to real-life situations of conformity such as making decisions among people they know or in situations where the consequences of conformity may be important. Thus the study has low external validity.
Evaluate individual differences as a limitation of Asch’s study
P: Demonstrates independent behaviour rather than conformity
E: In the study only 1/3 of the trials where the majority unanimously gave the same wrong answer produced a conforming response. This means that in 2/3 of the trials the ppts stuck to their original judgement despite being faced with a majority expressing a different view
E: Limitation because Asch’s research actually demonstrates a commendable tendency for ppts to stick to what they believed in to be the correct behaviour
