Conformity For Asch + Variables AO3 Flashcards
What is a limitation of Asch’s research ?
P - One limitation is that the situation and task were artificial
E - Participants knew they were in a research study (demand characteristics). The tasks were trivial and there was no reason not to conform. It also is not similar to day-to-day life.
E - his means the findings do not generalise to everyday life
What is another limitation of Asch’s research of conformity ?
P - Another limitation is that Asch’s findings have little application
E - Only American men were tested by Asch. Neto suggested that women might be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships. Also the US is an individualist culture whereas other countries like Chin are collectivist cultures where they have found higher conformity rates.
E - This means Asch’s findings tells us little about conformity in women and people from different cultures so it lacks representativeness and causes a lack of validity.
What is one strength of Asch’s research of conformity ?
P - One strength is other evidence that is more recent supports Asch’s findings
E - Lucas et al asked participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems. Participants were given answers that falsely claimed to from three other students. The participants conformed more often when the problems were ‘harder’.
E - This shows Asch was correct that task difficulty is one variable affecting conformity.
What is another limitation of Asch’s research on conformity ?
P - One limitation is that Asch’s research raises ethical issues
E - When participants are deceived they cannot give their informed consent to take part and may have a negative experience since it could cause sense.
E - Therefore, we might still argue that the research was causing ethical issues that caused more harm than good.
What is one limitation of the variables that affect conformity ?
P - One limitation of the variables is that the research conducted had a situation and task that were artificial
E - Participants knew they were in a research study (demand characteristics). The tasks were trivial for example when Asch made the lines more diffucult when adapting to the variable of task difficulty and there was no reason not to conform. It also is not similar to day-to-day life.
E - This means the findings do not generalise to everyday life, especially those situations where the consequences of conformity are important.
What is another limitation of the variables that affect conformity ?
P - Another limitation of the variables is that Asch’s findings have little application
E - Only American men were tested by Asch. Neto suggested that women might be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships. Also the US is an individualist culture whereas other countries like Chin are collectivist cultures where they have found higher conformity rates. So for the variables Asch experimented with had the same sample of American men meaning that these factors could not represent most peoples reactions to conformity.
E - This means Asch’s findings tells us little about conformity in women and people from different cultures so it lacks representativeness and causes a lack of validity.
What is one strength of the variables that affect conformity ?
P - One strength of the variables that affect conformity is other evidence that is more recent supports Asch’s findings on the variables , specifically task difficulty
E - Lucas et al asked participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems. Participants were given answers that falsely claimed to from three other students. The participants conformed more often when the problems were ‘harder’.
E - This shows Asch was correct that task difficulty is one variable affecting conformity.
What is another limitation of the variables that affect conformity ?
P - One limitation of the variables that affect conformity is that Asch’s research raises ethical issues
E - When participants are deceived they cannot give their informed consent to take part and may have a negative experience since it could cause stress.
E - Therefore, we might still argue that the research was causing ethical issues that caused more harm than good.
What were Asch’s aims ?
Aims - Asch devised a procedure to measure the extent that people conformed to the opinion of others, even in a situation when the others’ answers were clearly wrong. The baseline procedure is briefly described below left.
What were Asch’s procedures ?
Procedures - Asch showed participants two cards. He then asked them to saw which of the comparison lines was the same length as the standard line. This was repeated 17 times. On every trial, the answer was obvious to anyone with normal eyesight. But only one participant was naive and the others were in on the research. The researchers told the stooges about which answers to give and usually the artic impact was last or second or last to give in their answers. The first two times, the totes gave in their correct answer so that the participants didn’t realise. But after that the stooges all gave the same wrong answer.
What were Asch’s findings ?
his was a measure of conformity. Overall, there was a 32% conformity rate. 75% conformed once , compared to 25% who didn’t conform once
What was thhe conclusion from Asch’s research ?
Conclusion - The only reason for this level of conformity was hearing the incorrect answer previously given. This who gave incorrect answers told Asch they knew their answers were wrong but they didn’t want to go against the rest of the group , they wanted to fit in. This was an example of NSI.
What did Asch find from changing the group size ?
V1 : Group size
Procedure : Asch varied the number of confederates in each group between 1 and 15
Findings : The relationship between group size and level of conformity was curvilinear. If there was two confederate , conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%. When there were 3 confederates , conformity rose to 31.8%. Above three confederates , conformity rate levelled off. Adding more than three confederates made little difference.
Explanation : People very sensitive to opinions of other people because just one confederate was enough to sway opinion.
What did Asch find when unanimity was introduced into the group ?
V2 : Unanimity
Procedure : Asch introduced a dissenting confederate - sometimes they gave the correct answer and sometimes a different wrong answer (but always disagreed with the majority).
Findings : In the presence of a dissenter , conformity reduced on average to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous. Conformity reduced if the dissenter gave right or wrong answer.
Explanation : Having a dissenter enabled the naive participant to behave more independently.
What did Asch find when he made the task more difficult ?
V3 : Task difficulty
Procedure : Asch made the line-judging task harder by making stimulus line and comparison lines more similar in length. Thus, it was difficult to see differences between lines.
Finding : Conformity increased.
Explanation : The situation is more ambiguous , so we are more likely to look to others for guidance and to assume they are right and we are wrong. This is informational social influence - it plays a greater roll when the tasks become harder
