conformity - asch baseline

Question 1

when was the baseline conducted

Answer 1

1951

Question 2

(baseline) aim

Answer 2

investigate extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform

Question 3

(baseline) procedure

Answer 3

• 50 males
• lab experiment
• line-judgement task
• naive participant & 7 confederates
• state aloud which comparison line (A,B,C) was most similar to standard line (X) –> sometimes confederates right, sometimes wrong (12/18)
• naive participant gave answer last

Question 4

(baseline) results

Answer 4

• ~32% conformed each trial
• 74% conformed on at least 1

Question 5

(baseline) conclusion

Answer 5

majority of naive participants conformed to fit in with majority which provides evidence for normative social influence & highlights compliance

Question 6

16 marker: evaluation of asch’s original study (1951) AO1

Answer 6

aim = to investigate the extent to which individuals conform under social pressure from majority group
procedure = 50 males, 1 naive participant in room with 7 confederates, line judging task, say answer aloud, naive participant always last
results = around 32% conformed each trial, 74% conformed at least once
conclusion = majority of naive participants conformed to fit in with majority which provides evidence for NSI and highlights compliance

Question 7

16 marker: evaluation of asch’s original study (1951) AO3

Answer 7

-)
P: low levels of ecological validity
E: line judgement task is very artificial which doesn’t reflect real-life conformity
T: thus, we are unable to generalise results to other real-life situation (eg people start smoking/drinking around friends) causing results to be limited in practical application

-)
P: cannot be generalised to population
E: participants were 50 american males & other research suggests women may be more conformist (eg. neto 1955). also, the US is an individualist culture & other studies conducted in collectivist cultures, they’ve found conformity rates to be higher (bond & smith 1996)
T: thus, asch’s findings tell us little about conformity for women & people from collectivist cultures

-)
P: ethical issues
E: asch deceived participants by telling them they were taking part in a vision test suggesting he didn’t gather fully informed consent
T: thus, his research doesn’t adhere to ethical guidelines

+)
P: reliable
E: standardised procedure was used where confederates consistently gave wrong answer
T: experiment could be easily replicated