Research into conformity (Asch and Zimbardo)

Question 1

What was Asch’s aim?

Answer 1

To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who have obviously wrong answers

Question 2

what was ashes procedure (lab experiment)?

Answer 2

-123 male undergraduates
-told study was on visual perception
-7-9 people looking at display
-correct answer was always obvious (unambiguous)
-confederates(accomplices) Dave the same incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trials

Question 3

What were asch’s findings?

Answer 3

37% critical trials were conformed on
75% confirmed to at least one wrong answer
25% never gave a wrong answer
5% conformed to all wrong answers

Question 4

What was Asch’s conclusions?

Answer 4

-When interviewed afterwards, they said that they complained publicly to avoid rejection in disapproval, but privately, they continue to trust own judgements
-demonstrates a strong tendency to confirm to group pressures in the situation, even when the answer is clear

Question 5

what does it mean as most participants before publicly, but not privately? (conclusion)

Answer 5

it suggests they were motivated by normative social influence

Question 6

What percentage of these trials did the participants stick to their own original judgement and what does this demonstrate? (conclsusion)

Answer 6

63%, demonstrated a tendency to participate to stick to what they believed to be correct

Question 7

what were the situational variables affecting conformity?

Answer 7

-task difficulty
-Group size
-Unanimity

Question 8

what does task difficulty do?

Answer 8

conformity increases when the task difficulty increases, as the right answer becomes less obvious, therefore confidence in our own judgement tends to drop

Question 9

what was the task difficulty procedure?

Answer 9

Difficulty was increased by making the stimulus line and comparison line similar to each other, so the correct answer is less obvious

Question 10

what were the conformity rates due to task difficulty?

Answer 10

Task more difficult- participants were more likely to conform to the wrong answer

Question 11

Why did task difficulty influence conformity?

Answer 11

-ISI plays a greater role when the task is harder
-this is because the situation is more ambiguous so we are more likely to look to others more for guidance and assume they are right about the correct response

Question 12

What did group size do?

Answer 12

research indicates that conformity rate increases the size of a majority influence increased, but only to certain point

Question 13

what was the procedure for group size?

Answer 13

ash investigated group size by varying the number of confederates (1-15)

Question 14

what were the conformity rates for group size?

Answer 14

-one p and one c 3%
-2 c’s 13%
-3 c’s 32%
-adding extra confederates had no further effects on overall conformity rates

Question 15

when is groups size important?

Answer 15

Only to certain point

Question 16

why did group size influence conformity?

Answer 16

-Due to NSI- the task is unambiguous and the only reason participants may conform to the majority would it be to avoid disapproval

Question 17

what did increasing the size of the majority beyond 3 do and why ? (conclusion)

Answer 17

-it didn’t increased levels of conformity
-Brown and Byrne (1997)people might suspect collusion with the majority rises beyond three or four

Question 18

what did Brown and Byrne (1997) suggest? (Group size conclusion)

Answer 18

people might suspect collusion with the majority rises beyond three or four

Question 19

what does unanimity mean?

Answer 19

All group members are in agreement with each other

Question 20

what does unanimity do to conformity rates?

Answer 20

Conformity rates have been found to decline when majority influence is not unanimous(majority does not agree with each other)

Question 21

what was the procedure of unanimity?

Answer 21

-ash wanted to know if the presence of another non-conforming person would affect the participant conformity
-He introduced a dissenter who disagreed with the others (sometimes right, sometimes wrong)-different to majority

Question 22

what were the conformity rates for unanimity?

Answer 22

-when the confederate had been instructed to give correct, answers throughout, conformity to wrong, answers drop to 5.5
-When a lone dissenter gave the wrong answer conformity dropped to 9%.

Question 23

why did unanimity influence conformity?

Answer 23

-Breaking the groups unanimity was the major factor in conformity reduction
-The presence of the dissenter, enables the naive participant to behave more independently

Question 24

what does and experiment being controlled mean?

Answer 24

It’s replicable and reliable

Question 25

Why were ethical issues a limitation?

Answer 25

-Deception, misled about key aspects
-As a result lack of informed consent was an issue as participants didn’t know the true nature of the study about conformity
-Although researchers would argue that deception was necessary in this experiment to avoid demand characteristics

Question 26

what was Zimbardo’s aim?

Answer 26

-To investigate the extent to which people would conform to the rules in a role-playing stimulation of prison life
-To investigate whether conforming behaviour was due to the person (dispositional factors)-nature or the prison context (situational factors – then real life, they would not conform to the rules)

Question 27

What was the first part of Zimbardo’s
Procedure?

Answer 27

-Stanford, prison study(mock prison)
-Controlled observation
-24 Male students from a volunteer sample.
-All volunteers were psychologically and physically screened
-Participants were randomly allocated to the role of prisoner or guard
-Zimbardo played the role of prison supervisor, as well as psychologist and the study was planted to last 14 days

Question 28

what was the second part of Zimbardo’s procedure (dehumanisation, and deindividuation process)?

Answer 28

-Prisoners, unexpectedly, arrested at home and taken to the prison and dehumanised
-Dehumanisation- blindfolded, stocking caps to simulate a bald head.
-Deindividuation- prisoners dressed in smock dresses and given prison ID number, guards- wearing uniforms and reflective (mirror) sunglasses, which made them feel anonymous

Question 29

What was the zimbardo’s findings?

Answer 29

-Dehumanisation was apparent as the guards began to humiliate the prisoners and made them clean the toilet with their bare hands
-Deindividuation was noticeable by the prisoners referring to each other as themselves by the prison numbers instead of their names

Question 30

What were Zimbardo’s findings part 2?

Answer 30

-Guards, prisoners and researchers all conformed to their social roles
-Participants found themselves behaving as if they were in a prison, rather than in a psychological study
-Their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners, psychological and physical health, and the study was stopped after six days

Question 31

What was zimbardo’s conclusion?

Answer 31

-Study revealed the power of the situation
-The social roles that the participants play has influenced their uncharacteristic behaviour, even when such roles override an individuals moral beliefs about their personal behaviour

Question 32

what can Zimbardo’s research do psychology?

Answer 32

ruin reputation

Question 33

why are demand characteristics a limitation of Zimbardo’s procedure?

Answer 33

-lowers internal validity