Conformity-Asch

Question 1

A01

Define Conformity

Answer 1

a change in persons behaviour as result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

A01

Outline Asch’s aim on research on conformity

Answer 2

Asch devised procedure to assess the extent to which people will conform to opinions of others

Question 3

A01

Outline Aschs baseline study ‘lines’ procedure

Answer 3

123 male American
p were tested in groups of 6 to 8
consisting of 1 true p & confederates (in lab experiment)
* P & confederates were presented with 3
comparison lines & 1 standard line
* p asked to state which of 3 lines was the same length as a
standard line
* Confederates were told to give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18
trials
* Asch observed how often the genuine p gave same incorrect answer as confederates versus correct answer

Question 4

A01

Outline Aschs baseline study ‘lines’ findings

Answer 4

On average the genuine P agreed with confederates incorrect answers 36.8% of the time
Genuine p conformed a third of the time
75% conformed at least once
25% of p never conformed , shows theres individual differences

Question 5

A01

Identify the 3 Variables investigated by Asch

Answer 5

• Group size
• unanimity
• Task difficulty

Asch(1955) extended his baseline study to investigate the variables that lead to increase or decrease in conformity

Question 6

1. Group size

asch wanted to know whether size of group affects conformity

Answer 6

• varied the number of confederates
• found curvilinear relationship between group size & conformity rate
• Conformity increased with group size
• There was low conformity when group size of confederates consisting of less than 3 ppl - more than 3 & conformity rose by 30%
  shows majority must be at least 3 to exert an influence,
  but size of majority is important to an optimal point

Question 7

A01

2 Unanimity

The extent to which all memebrs in group agree

Answer 7

Asch wanted to see if presence of non conforming person would affect p conformity.
* Asch introduced confederate that gave correct answer & in another variation gave wrong answer
genuine p conformed less when in presence of dissenter(confederate)
* suggests p more likely to conform when the group is unanimous i.e. all give the same answer
* Asch-breaking groups consensus main influence of conformity

Question 8

A01

3 Task difficulty

Asch wanted to know whether making task harder would affect conformity

Answer 8

> Asch increased difficulty of line-judging task by making standard lines & comparison lines more similar in length
Thus became harder for genuine p to see diff between lines & Conformity increased

When task is difficult, we are more uncertain of our answer
so we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the
greater the conformity.

Question 9

A03

Asch research is Artifical in both task & situation

(Limitation)

Answer 9

Aschs research is artificial in both Tasks & situation
>p knew they are in research study, may have gone along with what was expected, responded to demand characteristics
>Task of identifying lines was trivial & did not impact p in real life
>cannot generalise findings to real world situations-Lacks ecological validity

Question 10

A03

Aschs research lacks population validity -all american men & gender bias

(limitation)

Answer 10

Asch’s study Lacks population validity as p were all American men-subject to gender bias
* research found women are more conformists due to their concern with social relationships & being accepted( Neto 1995)
* USA is an individualist culture , ppl concerned more about themselves than in
* collectivist cultures - concerned more with social groups( like china)
studies conducted in collectivist cultures found conformity rates are high
Means Asch’s research tells us little about conformity in women & other culture

gender bias, where it is assumed findings from male participants can be genralised ot females

Question 11

A03

Ethical issues

Limitation

Answer 11

Naive participants were deceived because thought other ppl in procedure(confederates) were genuine participants
can be argued that ethical costs do not outweigh the findings of the research

Question 12

A03

Research support for task difficulty (Lucas et al)

Strength

Answer 12

support for effect of task difficulty
>Lucas et al-asked p to solve ‘easy’ & ‘hard’ math problems
>p were given answers from 3 other student( fake)-p conformed more often (agreed with wrong answers) when problems were harder
>shows Asch correct in claiming task difficulty is one of the variables affecting conformity