SOCIAL INFLUENCE- Asch's research Flashcards
explain Asch’s baseline procedure.
- 123 american men were given the same task of matching comparison lines to other lines. -123 students were divided into groups of 7-9.
-One ps in each group =naive participant who would conform to the group. - there were 18 trials and 12 were critical
-75% participants conformed and 25 % didn’t conform
what was the effect of group size on conformity?
increased group size = increased conformity
there is a curvilinear relationship between size and conformity rate.
what is the effect of unanimity?
The presence of a dissenter decreased conformity.
what is the effect of task difficulty?
increased task difficulty= increased conformity.
This is because it is unclear to the participant what the right answer is .
strengths of Asch’s research?
+ support from other studies for effects of task difficulty
eg Todd Lucas et al (2006) asked Participants to solve easy and hard maths problems
Findings - Participants conformed more often when the problems were harder
This shows Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity.
limitations of Asch’s research?
COUNTERPOINT for lucas et al
- however, Lucas et al’s study found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested.
eg individual level factors can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables.
Asch did not study role of individual factors
- ethical issues= naive participants were deceived
-situation and task is artificial = Ps knew they were in a research study and may have shown demand characteristics = findings do not generalise to real world situations.
- limited application = Ps were American men. US is an individualist country .Other research says that women are more conformist possibly because they concern about social relationships and being accepted.
SO, Asch’s findings tells us little about conformity in women and people from some cultures.
