Conformity (asch) Flashcards
AO1: Baseline study:
Assess to what extent people will conform to the opinions of others, even when the answer is certain
123 American male participants were tested
tested in groups of 6-8, only one was a genuine participant. The others were confederates, who all gave incorrect answers
findings: 25% never gave a wrong answer, meaning 75% conformed at least once
AO1: variation: group size
varied the number of confederates from 1-15
found that conformity increased with group size but only up to a certain point. With 3 confederates, conformity rose to 32%. Presence of more than 3 made little difference
suggests most people are sensitive to the views of other because only a few confederates was enough to sway opinion
AO1: variation- unanimity
had a dissenter who gave the correct answer, the participant conformed less. Suggests the influence of the majority depends on it being unanimous
AO1: variation- task difficulty
made the lines similar in length. Found the conformity increased, it is unclear to the participants what the right answer is so it is natural to look to other people for the answer (informational social influence)
AO3: limitation- low population validity
however, large sample size
P: Asch’s study is low in population validity
E: used a biased sample of male American students.
E: therefore results can’t be generalised to the target population
L: lacks population valdity, and further research would needed to see how females conform
HOWEVER, Asch does use a large sample size, so results can still be generalised to males from America
AO3: limitation- low ecological validity
however, reliable
P: Asch’s study is low in ecological validity
E: the line judgement task is an artificial task
E: this doesn’t reflect conformity in everyday life
L: unable to generalise the results to other real life situations e.g. why people may start smoking or drinking around friends. Therefore when it comes to research into conformity the results are limited in their application to everyday life
HOWEVER, it was reliable as Asch controlled the independent variable (length of line and number of confederates) and the extraneous variables (the lighting, temperature, instructions read to all participants), he was able to repeat the experiment to check for consistent
AO3: limitation: low temporal validity
P: Asch’s research took place in a time in US history when conformity was arguably higher.
E: since 1950, numerous psychologists have attempted to replicate Asch’s study
E: e.g. used maths and engineering students and found significantly lower levels of conformity
L: shows the conformity rates from Aschs research may not provide an accurate reflection of conformity in modern times.
AO3: limitation- ethical issues
P: broke several ethical guidelines
E: he deceived his participants, by saying that they were taking part in a vision test and not an experiment on conformity.
E: aswell as this they were not protected from psychological harm, and many of the naive participants reported feeling stressed when they disagreed with the majority
L: shows the experiment was deemed unethical
