Social Influence - Asch's Conformity Research Flashcards
1
Q
What is conformity?
A
A change in a persons’ behaviour or opinions as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.
2
Q
Asch’s Aim
A
To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers. However, he told participants that they would be taking part in a visual discrimination task to test perception.
3
Q
Asch’s Procedure
A
- 123 American male student volunteers took part in what they were told was a study of visual perception
- Individual participants were placed in groups of 6-8 confederates (participant was unaware they were with confederates)
- They were seated around a table and were asked to say which comparison line (A,B or C) was the same length as the stimulus line (X) on 18 different trials, with the answer always being obvious
- They took turns to call out their answer with the real participant always answering second to last or last
- 12 of the 18 trials were ‘critical’ trials where the confederates gave identical wrong answers; for the first six trials, the confederates gave the right answers. (one trial is one occasion of identifying the length of the stimulus line)
- There was also a control group of 36 participants who were tested individually on 20 trials to test how accurate individual judgements were
4
Q
Asch’s Findings
A
- The naive participant gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time
- 75% conformed to at least one wrong answer, with 25% never conforming
- 50% conformed to 6 or more of the 12 critical trials
- 5% conformed on all 12 critical trials
- The control group had an error rate of 0.04% (3 mistakes out of 720 trials) which shows how obvious the correct answers were
- Post-experiment interviews were conducted and found 3 reasons for conformity;
1. The majority of participants conformed publicly to avoid disapproval from other group members but continued privately to trust their own perceptions and judgement
2. Some participants believed their perception must actually be wrong and so conformed
3. Some participants had doubts concerning the accuracy of their judgements and so conformed to the majority view
5
Q
Asch’s Conclusions
A
- The judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions, even when the majority are obviously wrong (the task is unambiguous)
- There are big individual differences in the amount to which people are affected by majority influence
- As most conformed publicly, not privately, it suggests they were motivated by normative social influence (conformity to avoid rejection)
6
Q
Evaluation of Asch’s Study (Weaknesses)
A
- It is possible that Asch’s findings are unique because the research took place in a period of US history known as McCarthyism where conformity was high due to the strong anti-communist narrative where people were scared to go against the majority and so became more likely to conform.
- Perrin and Spencer’s 1980 research in the UK that repeated this study used science and engineering students, and found in their initial study that only one conforming response out of a total of 396 trials where a majority unanimously gave the same wrong answer.
- It may be that these students were more confident measuring lines than the original sample, but it’s more likely that society has changed since the 1950s and people are generally less conformist today
- This means that the study lacks external validity as it cannot be generalised to modern society and no longer reflects the nature of conformity - The fact that participants had to answer out loud and were with a group of strangers who they wanted to impress may have meat conformity was higher than usual - however, research has found that conformity was actually higher when the majority of the group were friends, suggesting that conformity changes from situation to situation
- This means that the results lack external validity and have methodological issues that interrupt conclusions about general conformity and ignore its complexity
7
Q
Evaluation of Asch - (Weaknesses 2)
A
- The situation was unrealistic and lacked mundane realism; it would be unusual to be in a situation where you would disagree so much with others as to what was the ‘correct’ answer in the situation - the task was trivial and so there was no reason not to conform
- The ‘group’ also did not resemble groups in everyday life, and additionally the confederates were not trained actors participants may have realised their answers weren’t real
- Participants may therefore have guessed the aims and changed their behaviour accordingly (demand characteristics)
- This means that the study lacks both internal and ecological validity and the conformity in the study may not reflect everyday situations; with the participants guessing the purpose of the study, it does not measure what was intended - major methodological flaws - Asch’s study was unethical as it involved deceit about the aim of the study and the confederates; it also involved psychological harm, with participants put under stress through disagreeing with others. However, it is worth considering that these ethical costs should be weighed against the benefits gained from the study
- May have caused psychological damage were given a debrief and an opportunity to discuss any ill feelings, so the ethical design of the study was worth the benefits (deceit and self-esteem harm)
8
Q
Evaluation of Asch’s study - (Weaknesses 3)
A
- Asch only tested males - research has found that women are more conformist, possibly due to a higher concern about social relationships and being accepted than men are. The participants were also just American (from an individualist culture) where people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group.
- Similar studies conducted in collectivist cultures e.g. China where the social groups are more important than the individual, have found conformity rates are higher
- This is because such cultures are more oriented to group needs
- Therefore, the study may not be generalisable or culturally and gender transmissible, leading to incomplete and narrow theories of conformity
9
Q
Definition - Group Size
A
- The more people there are, the more likely they are to conform - the amount of people
10
Q
Definition - Unanimity
A
- Agreement by all people involved
11
Q
Definition - Task difficulty
A
- The degree to which the activity requires a considerable amount of cognitive or physical effort to complete a task; the more difficult a task, the more conformity increased
12
Q
Definition - Compliance
A
- The action of complying to or obeying a wish or demand
13
Q
Definition - Identification
A
- When an individual assimilates an aspect or attribute and associating closely with other individuals characteristics and persepctives
14
Q
Definition - Internalisation
A
- The non-conscious mental process by which the characteristics, beliefs, feelings or attitudes of other individuals or groups are assimilated into the self and adopted as one’s own
15
Q
Definition - Normative Social Influence
A
- When a person conforms to fit in with the group because they don’t want to appear foolish or be rejected
