key studies in conformity

Question 1

what was the aim of Jenness (1932) study?

Answer 1

whether individuals will change their opinion in an AMBIGUOUS situation, in response to group discussion

Question 2

what did Jenness do?

Answer 2

ambiguous situation - glass bottle filled with beans (811)
- asked participants INDIVIDUALLY to estimate the amount of beans in the jar
- then put them into GROUPS of 3 for discussion
- after discussion, pps had another opportunity to INDIVIDUALLY estimate the number of beans

Question 3

how many students were in the study - Jenness?

Answer 3

26 students

Question 4

what were the results of Jenness’ study?

Answer 4

nearly all participants changed their original answer
- ( on average, male pps changed their answers by 256 beans, female pps changed their answers by 382 beans)
- the range of the whole group went from 1875 to 474 (75% decrease)
- CONVERGING OPINIONS of pps after discussion

Question 5

what was the conclusion of Jenness’ study?

Answer 5

individuals changed their original estimate due to ISI
- believed the group estimates were more likely to be correct

Question 6

what was the aim of Asch’s (1951) experiment?

Answer 6

investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave an OBVIOUSLY WRONG answer in a non-ambiguous situation

Question 7

what did Asch do? (overview)

Answer 7

line experiment
- naive participant placed in a room with up to 8 confederates
- participant was always seated last (or second to last)
- each person had to state aloud their answer

Question 8

how many participants were involved - Asch

Answer 8

123 US males

Question 9

how many trials were there?

Answer 9

18 in total
- 12 critical trials (where confederates gave the wrong answer)
- (also a control condition where there were no confederates)

Question 10

on average, how many participants conformed? (Asch)

Answer 10

around 35% of pps conformed in the critical trials

Question 11

over the 12 critical trials, how many conformed at least once - Asch

Answer 11

75%
- 25% never conformed
- in control group, <1% gave the wrong answer

Question 12

when interviewed, why did pps say they conformed - Asch

Answer 12

they knew their answers were wrong but went along with the group TO FIT IN
- NSI

Question 13

what type of conformity did Asch’s experiment show? (and why)

Answer 13

compliance
- agreeing publicly, not privately
NSI
- pps wanted to be LIKED and accepted rather than be right

Question 14

what are the 3 variables affecting conformity?

Answer 14

group size
unanimity of the majority
task difficulty

Question 15

how did Asch investigate the 3 variables?

Answer 15

carried out some variations of his original experiment

Question 16

what did Asch find about group size?

Answer 16

very LITTLE conformity when there were 1-2 confederates
majority of 3 confederates = HIGH conformity
- rates rose to 30%
BUT
- inc. past 3 confeds did not affect conformity rates

Question 17

what did Campbell and Fairey (1989) say about group size?

Answer 17

group size will have an effect depending on the TYPE of judgement being made
- ambiguous task - conformity more likely

Question 18

what is unanimity of the majority?

Answer 18

when everyone in the group agrees with the same answer
- whether it’s right or wrong

Question 19

what did Asch find about unanimity?

Answer 19

if one confederate gave the CORRECT answer, conformity dropped from 33% to 5.5%
if a confederate gave the WRONG answer - but diff. to the rest - conformity dropped to 9%
- suggests it only takes one break in the unanimous decision for conformity rates to drop

Question 20

how did Asch investigate task difficulty?

Answer 20

he made the diff. between line lengths smaller - more difficult
- conformity INCREASED

Question 21

what did Lucas (2006) find about task difficulty?

Answer 21

influence of task difficulty is moderated by the SELF-EFFICACY of individual
- when exposed to maths problems, high self efficacy pps remained independent
- difficulty and self-efficacy are both important

Question 22

what is self efficacy?

Answer 22

how competent / confident a person feels in carrying out a task

Question 23

WEAKNESS of Asch’s study - time

Answer 23

LACKS TEMPORAL VALIDITY
- Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s experiment in UK with students
- only one student conformed (in a total of 396 trials)
- either engineering students felt more confident, or 1950s was a conformist decade
the Asch effect is NOT CONSISTENT across SITUATIONS OR TIME

Question 24

WEAKNESS of Asch’s study - conditions

Answer 24

• DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS - lab experiment, pps may have guessed the aim and changed their behaviour
  LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
• guessing line lengths is not an everyday task
• cannot generalise findings to everyday situations

Question 25

WEAKNESS of Asch’s study - sample

Answer 25

• pps were all men - same findings may not apply to women
• pps all from the US
  US = individualistic culture
• people more concerned about themselves
  collectivist culture, eg China
• social group is more important
• HIGHER conformity rates
  LACKS POPULATION VALIDITY
• findings can only be applied to US males, not women or other cultures

Question 26

WEAKNESS of Asch’s study - ethics

Answer 26

DECEPTION = ethical issue
- used confederates who gave wrong answers
- could lead to psychological harm for the pps - they would be confused as to why everyone was giving a clearly wrong answer
- question whether he gave fully informed consent
- he debriefed pps after - but was it enough