Conformity Asch A03 Flashcards
What are the 4 evaluation points for Asch’s study?
- Artificial stimulation task
- Limited Application
- Research support
- Ethical Issues
Outline the evaluation for Artificial stimulation task.
- Limitation is that situations were artificial
- Participants knew they were in a research study (demand characteristics)
- Trivial task of identifying lines is trivial = no real reason to conform
- Susan Fiske, groups didn’t really represent groups we experience in everyday life
- Means findings don’t generalise to real world situations, especially those where consequences of conformity may be important
Artificial Stimulation Task (Limitation):
Artificial situations created what for participants?
- Participants knew they were in a research study (demand characteristics)
Artificial Stimulation Task (Limitation):
Why did participants in Asch’s base line study have no reason to conform?
- Task of identifying lines is trivial = no real reason to conform
Artificial Stimulation Task (Limitation):
What does Susan Fiske say about Asch’s baseline study?
- Susan Fiske, groups didn’t really represent groups we experience in everyday life
Artificial Stimulation Task (Limitation):
According to Susan Fiske, what is the consequence of Asch’s baseline study groups not representing groups we experience in everyday life?
- Means findings don’t generalise to real world situations, especially those where consequences of conformity may be important
Limited Application (Limitation):
Why does Asch’s study have limited application?
- Limitation is that participants were American men
Limited Application (Limitation):
What does other research suggest about conformity?
- Other research suggests women may be more conformist
Limited Application (Limitation):
What did conformist studies similar to Asch’s study conducted in collectivist countries find?
- Similar conformist studies conducted in collectivist cultures found that conformity rates are higher
Limited Application (Limitation):
What do findings about conformity from collectivist cultures and on women mean for Asch’s study?
- Means Asch’s study tells us little about conformity in women and people from diff cultures
Limited Application (Limitation):
What type of culture does the US have?
- The US is an individualist culture
Outline the evaluation for Research Support.
- Strength is research support from other studies on task difficulty
- Todd Lucas et al.
- Asked ppt to solve easy and hard math problems
- Ppt were given answers from three other students
- Ppt conformed more often when problems were harder
- Shows Asch was correct in claiming task difficulty is one factor that affects conformity
Research Support (Strength):
There is is research support from other studies supporting Asch on what?
- Strength is research support from other studies on task difficulty
Research Support (Strength):
Who created the research support from other studies supporting Asch on task difficulty?
- Todd Lucas et al.
Research Support (Strength):
What did Todd Lucas ask ppt to do in his research support from other studies supporting Asch on task difficulty?
- Asked ppt to solve easy and hard math problems
Research Support (Strength):
What did Todd Lucas ask ppt to do in his research support from other studies supporting Asch on task difficulty?
- Ppt were given answers from three other students
Research Support (Strength):
In Todd Lucas research support from other studies supporting Asch on task difficulty, what did he find about conformity?
- Ppt conformed more often when problems were harder
Research Support (Strength):
What does Todd Lucas research support findings from other studies supporting Asch on task difficulty show about Asch’s study?
- Shows Asch was correct in claiming task difficulty is one factor that affects conformity
Outline the counter evaluation for Research Support.
- Todd Lucas et al found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested
- Ppt with high confidence in their math abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence
- Shows Asch did not research into role of individual factors
Outline the evaluation for Ethical Issues.
- Naïve ppt were deceived
- ppt thought others (confederates) were also genuine ppt
Outline Asch’s Baseline study
- 123 Americans tested
- two large white cards
- line X on left side is the standard line ad lines ABC were the comparison lines
- one comparison line is always clearly the same length as the standard line and the other two were substantially different
- Participants were asked to say out loud which comparison line was the same as the standard line
- There was only one genuine participant and they didn’t know everyone else was fake participants
