SOCIAL INFLUENCE - asch's research Flashcards
1
Q
who investigated conformity?
A
- ASCH (1951-55)
2
Q
how many participants did ASCH use?
A
- 123
3
Q
- who were ASCH’s participants?
A
- american
- male
- undergraduates
4
Q
what was ASCH’s procedure?
A
- asked groups to identify which lines out of ‘A, B, C’ are equal to ‘X’
5
Q
how big were ASCH’s groups?
A
- 6-8 people
one naive participant sat second to last
6
Q
how many trials did ASCH do?
A
- 18
12 critical trials
7
Q
what were ASCH’s findings?
A
- 75% conformed at least once
- participants conformed on 36.8% of the trials
8
Q
what were ASCH’s variations?
A
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
9
Q
what impact did group size have on conformity?
A
- increases conformity as it rises, until 3 people in which it plateaued at 31.8%
10
Q
what impact did unanimity have on conformity?
A
- presence of a dissenter reduced conformity by 25%
11
Q
what impact did task difficulty have on conformity?
A
- the harder it was to judge the lines, the more people conformed
(informational social influence)
12
Q
EVALUATION
what did PERRIN and SPENCER do? and how does this relate to ASCH’s study?
A
- repeated ASCH’s study with engineering students (1980)
- only one conformed in 396 trials
so. .. - reduces temporal validity
- reduces population validity as it cannot be applied to all
13
Q
EVALUATION
what did FISKE say? and how does this relate to ASCH’s study?
A
- ASCH’s groups were ‘not very groupy’ and thus people will realise they are being tested
- therefore demand characteristics will effect the results of the study
so. .. - reduces the internal validity of asch
14
Q
EVALUATION
what did WILLIAMS and SOGON say? and how does this relate to ASCH’s study?
A
- results were found because they were amongst strangers saying answers aloud
- conformity is more amongst friends and less when writing answers down
so. .. - asch’s findings are not applicable to all situations
