Conformity - ASCH

Question 1

Asch - Baseline procedure and findings

Answer 1

• 123 male Americans
• Split into groups - each group 6-8 confederates (C)
• Shown 2 cards - Card 1 = line x - Card 2 = Lines A,B,C
• P’s had to choose same line as x
• C’s purposely chose wrong one
• Found that 36.8% p’s conformed - 25% p’s didn’t conform

Question 2

Asch - Variables investigated

Answer 2

1) Group size - varied the number of C’s - found that conformity increased when number of C’s increased
2) Unanimity - 1 C disagreed with the other C’s - found that conformity decreased
3) Task difficulty - made task harder - found that conformity increased when task was more difficult

Question 3

Asch - Evaluation - Strength

Answer 3

• Research support - effects of task difficulty
• Researchers asked their p’s to solve easy and hard maths questions - p’s given answers from 3 ‘other’ students - p’s conformed more often when the questions were harder
• Shows Asch was correct in claiming task difficulty affects conformity

Question 4

Asch - Evaluation - Limitation

Answer 4

• Artificial situation and task
• p’s knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected (demand characteristics)
• identifying the lines was trivial and so there was no reason not to conform
• findings don’t generalise to real world situations