NSI & ISI - Asch & Sherif Flashcards
What type of social influence did Sherif’s study demonstrate?
Informative social influence.
In Sherif study, he asked three participants to guess the distance the light has moved, when it was completely still, what was a finding he found with the participants guesses?
The third participant to be asked always went for an answer between the first two participant’s answer.
Briefly describe the procedures of Asch’s study.
123 male undergraduates participate in the study, where they were sat around a table with others, in a task where they were asked to call out which line out of three was the same length as the standard. Only one participant was tested in each case, and all others were confederates, who were told to give the same wrong answer in 12 out of 18 trials.
What are some findings from Asch’s study?
On the 12 trials, conformity rate was 33%, i.e. participants agreed with the incorrect answer on one-third of trials. Individual conformity rates also varied greatly. 15% never conformed, 50% conformed half or more times, and about 5% conformed on all trials.
When Asch interviewed participants afterwards, what did he find out about people’s internal belief and conformity behaviours and what type of social influence is he therefore demonstrate from this study?
Most participants who conformed privately trusted their own judgements, so they showed compliance and was normatively influenced to avoid disapproval from others.
What were three changes made in variations of the original Asch’s study to find out the significance of different variables on conformity rate?
- Group size.
- The unanimity of the majority.
- The difficulty of the task.
What was the group size that was found to be the persuasive majority where conformity rate was the highest?
3-6 confederates.
When there was one dissenter who were told to give the right answer, and the unanimity of the majority was disturbed, what was the percentage of conformity to the wrong answer?
It fell from 33% in the original study to just 5.5% with one dissenter.
What is the relationship Asch found between conformity rate and task difficulty?
The more difficult the task, the higher the level of conformity.
What are two important differences to consider when determining conformity?
Situational differences and individual difference.
What is an extraneous variable that moderates the correlation between conformity rate and task difficulty?
Individual’s self efficacy.
EVALUATION: Internally valid design(+)
P- Asch’s experiment design has good internal validity
E- Lab envrionment means high levels of control and therefore high test-retest reliability.
E- Variation studies also allows control of extraneous variable, by allowing him to see the effects of these variables on the results.
L- Overall successful demonstration of conformity because of its high validity.
EVALUATION: Unconvincing confederates(-)
P- Unconvincing confederates
E- Questions are not hard, so hard to seem convincing to give the wrong answer, leading to participants guessing the aim, demand characteristics, poor internal validity.
E- Mori and Arai(2010), intend to solve the problem by making people wearing different filtered glasses, results found with females matched Asch’s but not with males.
L- Therefore many in Asch’s confederate was convincing enough for the results found to be valid.
EVALUATION: Lack temporal validity(-)
P- Lack temporal validity.
E- The original study took place at a time in US were conformity is important and not conforming is bad.
E- Perrin and Spencer(1980) replicated in the UK where only one conforming response was recorded in 396 trials
L- Therefore results found by Asch is affected by special circumstances. Lack external validity. *Cultural difference should also be considered.(I&D)
