Research into conformity

Question 1

What was the aim of the Asch study?

Answer 1

To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform

Question 2

What was the procedure of the Asch study?

Answer 2

1. 123 male student volunteers took part in what they were told was a study of visual perception
2. They were placed around a table of confederates (they were the only genuine participant)
3. The task was to state what comparison line (a,b,c) was the same as the stimulus line
4. 12/18 of these trials were critical- the confederates were instructed to give an incorrect answer (all confederates gave the same incorrect answer)
5. The genuine participant gave his answer last so that he would see his peers give the incorrect answer

Question 3

What were the findings of the Asch study?

Answer 3

1. The control group had an error rate of 0.04% (3/720 trials), showing that the answers were obvious
2. On the 12 critical trials, there was a 32% conformity rate to wrong answers
3. 75% of participants conformed to at least 1 answer
4. 5% conformed to every possible answer of the 12 trials
5. The overall conformity rate was 37%

Question 4

What are the 3 variables affecting conformity?

Answer 4

1. Task difficulty
2. Size of majority
3. Unanimity

Question 5

How did task difficulty affect conformity in the Asch study?

Answer 5

1. Asch made the task harder by making the lines closer together
2. This increased conformity because if you find the task hard and are unsure of what to say, you’ll be more persuaded to agree with another person’s answer

Question 6

How did size of majority affect conformity in the Asch study?

Answer 6

1. On 11 occasions, the confederates gave a clearly wrong answer before the participant gave their answer- when asked their opinion, 75% of participants followed the group and gave the wrong answer on 1 or more occasions.
2. Conformity to majority increased in group size because if more people favour an answer, others will give into the social/ group pressure and agree with them, as it seems more reliable

Question 7

How did unanimity affect conformity in the Asch study?

Answer 7

1. Asch found that when 1 confederate went against the group, the conformity dropped from 32% to 5.5.%
2. This was because if it’s just 1 person who goes against the group then people are more likely to believe that they are in the wrong

Question 8

If the point is:

A weakness of Asch’s study is that the generalisability could be considered low. The high levels of conformity found may have been because of the time (1950’s) that the experiment was done. Modern day replications have found that people are far less conforming in tasks such as the line test, meaning the study lacks temporal validity.

What is the evidence, explanation and link?

Answer 8

Evidence- The participants in the study were 123 males. Therefore, it is hard to generalise the findings to potential female participants as the sample is unrepresentative of the target population. This makes the study androcentric.

Explanation- Subsequently, as the study was conducted at Swarthmore college in Pennsylvania, we cannot be sure that conformity levels would have been the same in all societies or cultures. Therefore, the study is ethnocentric.

Link- This suggests that Asch’s research cannot be generalised universally in today’s society.

Question 9

If the point is:
A strength of the the Asch study is that it has high reliability because the conformity study involved clear standardised procedures.

What is the evidence and link?

Answer 9

Evidence- For example, all participants sat round a table with 7 confederates, all participants gave their answer last, and all participants heard confederates give the wrong answer on 12/18 trials

Link- This means that the study can be checked for consistency of findings, resulting in higher reliability.

Question 10

If the point is:

A strength of Asch’s research is that it has led to practical application in real life.

What is the explanation and link?

Answer 10

Explanation- Due to the findings of the line test, jurors are now warned about conformity during their briefing so that they don’t feel excessive pressure by other jury members to give a specific verdict.

Link- This implies that Asch’s results have been used successfully in everyday life situations to explain conformity.

Question 11

If the point is:

A weakness of Asch’s lab experiment on conformity of line trials is that it can be said to have low external validity.

What is the evidence, explanation and link?

Answer 11

Evidence- This means that, because the study took place in a lab (an artificial environment), we must be careful when generalising the results to the real world.

Explanation- The task itself was also artificial, so it does not reflect real life situations of conformity.

Link- This implies that Asch’s results cannot be fully generalisable to each real life situation of conformity, as his results were based on an artificial situation of conformity, which may not be representative of real life conformity behaviour.

Question 12

What are the evaluation points of Asch’s study?

Answer 12

— The generalisability could be considered low. The high levels of conformity found may have been because of the time (1950’s) that the experiment was done. Modern day replications have found that people are far less conforming in tasks such as the line test, meaning the study lacks temporal validity.

+ It has high reliability because it involved clear standardised procedures

+ Led to practical applications

— Can be said to have low external validity