L3 - Variables affecting Conformity

Question 1

ASCH PROCEDURE

Answer 1

ASCH placed a NAIIVE PARTICIPANT (unaware of experiment purpose) in a group with several CONFEDERATES. The group was asked to say which line out of three test lines matched the length of a STANDARD LINE without discussing. They have their responses out loud one by one, the answer was OBVIOUS but the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials, the naiive pp was the last or second to last so they heard the other responses before giving their own.

Question 2

ASCH FINDINGS

Answer 2

The chances of making a genuine mistake on this task was only 1% but 33% of the responses were incorrect. 75% of pps conformed in AT LEAST ONE of the 18 trials, 5% conformed in ALL TRIALS but 25% DID NOT CONFORM ON ANY TRIAL

When Asch interviewed his pps afterwards he discovered that the majority of pps who had conformed knew the correct answer but just gave the same answer as the group to AVOID RIDICULE (NSI).

Question 3

how does group size affect conformity?

Answer 3

ASCH CHANGED GROUP SIZE during his research, groups with ONE CONFEDERATE had a conformity rate of 3%, TWO CONFEDERATES had conformity rate 13% and THREE CONFEDERATES was 32% conformity rate.

This shows that we can resist the influence of one or two people fairly easily, but three people are MUCH HARDER TO RESIST

There was LITLE CHANGE to conformity rates once groups had reached FOUR OR MORE CONFEDERATES

Question 4

how does task difficulty affect conformity?

Answer 4

ASCH decided to ADJUST THE DIFFICULTY OF THE TASK so he made the test lines MORE SIMILAR IN LENGTH, this made the CONFORMITY RATES HIGHER because the situation was MORE AMBIGUOUS and possibly because ISI was starting to have more of an impact.

This is because when we are uncertain, we LOOK TO OTHERS FOR CONFIRMATION. The more difficut the task became the greater the social influence and the conformity.

Question 5

how does unanimity affect conformity?

Answer 5

when the group had UNANIMITY (everyone agreed) CONFORMITY INCREASED. However when ONLY ONE other person in the group broke the unanimity of the group, CONFORMITY DROPPED

ASCH found that even the presence of just one confederate who went against the majority REDUCED CONFORMITY from 33% to 5%, even when the confederate gave a DIFFERENT WRONG ANSWER to the rest of the group the conformity rate STILL DROPPED from 33% to 9%.

Question 6

• ASCH temporal validity

Answer 6

ASCH MAY NOT HAVE TEMPORAL VALIDITY (when a study reflects the current time period). The study was conducted 80 YEARS AGO and its possible that the people may have been MORE CONFORMIST THEN THAN THEY ARE NOW

Question 7

• LOW ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY

Answer 7

The task given to pps (matching line lengths) is ARTIFICIAL AND UNLIKELY TO OCCUR IN REAL LIFE. Conformity usually takes place in a SOCIAL CONTEXT , often with PEOPLE WE KNOW rather than strangers - the study therefore LACKS MUNDANE REALISM (does not reflect real life) and ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY (cannot be generalised to real life)

Question 8

• GENDER BIASED

Answer 8

the study is GENDER BIASED because the sample ONLY CONTAINED MALE PPs, this means that the study MAY NOT REPRESENT FEMALE BEHAVIOUR. It is also CULTURALLY BIASED because it only included WHITE AMERICAN MEN and may not reflect the BEHAVIOUR OF OTHER CULTURES

Howevever, this study has been REPLICATED with DIFFERENT SAMPLES and CULTURES and has proven to be RELIABLE (similar results found)

Question 9

• VOLUNTEER SAMPLE

Answer 9

ASCH used a VOLUNTEER SAMPLE (pps offered to take part in his experiment) , the behaviour of the pps in this sample MAY NOT REPRESENT THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE WIDER POPULATION too.

This means that the study DOES NOT HAVE POPULATION VALIDITY and the results CANNOT BE GENERALISED TO THE WIDER POPULATION

Question 10

• ETHICAL ISSUES

Answer 10

There are SEVERAL ETHICAL ISSUES with this study, including DECEPTION (pps believed it was just a perception test), LACK OF INFORMED CONSENT (pps did not agree to take part in a conformity study), PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM (pps were put in a stressful and embarassing situation).

However it was NECESSARY to deceive pps so that DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS were prevented (when pps change their behaviour because they are in a study) which would make the study INVALID (study not measuring what it intends to measure)