conformity (Asch's research) Flashcards
1
Q
What was Asch’s procedure
A
- 123 male undergraduates participated
- he showed ppts two white cards
- one card had a standard line whilst the others had 3 comparison lines
- the ppts were asked which line matched the standard line
- all confederates gave the same wrong answer, each ppts took part in 18 trails and 12 ‘critical trails’
2
Q
What were his findings
A
- naive ppts gave the wrong answer 36.8%
- 25% of ppts did not conform
- 75% conformed at least once
- the term Asch effect has been used to describe this result
- in an interview ppts claimed they did it due to NSI
3
Q
What were Asch’s three variations
A
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
4
Q
Outline what he found in his variation of group size
A
- with 3 confederates conformity to wrong answers rose to 31.8%
- the addition of further confederates made little difference
5
Q
Outline what Asch found in his variation of unanimity
A
- Asch set up a confederate that disagreed with the others
- conformity rates were 25%
6
Q
Outline what he found in his variation of task difficulty
A
- he found conformity increased
- this suggests ISI plays a greater role when difficulty is increased
7
Q
Give a limitation of Asch’s research
A
- A child of its time
- Perrin and Spencer, repeated Asch’s study but with engineer students, only one conformed out of 396 trails
- this can mean one of two things, engineering students are either better at measuring lines and so this result was inevitable
- OR it may be because 1950 was a conformist time, this is a limitation because it means the Asch effect is not consistent across situations and may not be consistent over time
8
Q
Give another limitation of Asch’s research
A
- demand characteristics
- task was trivial and therefore no reason to actually conform
9
Q
What did Fiske find
A
- ‘Asch’s group were not very groupy’
- limitation as findings do not generalise to everyday situations
