Social influence : key studies (asch)

Question 1

What was the aim of asch’s study?

Answer 1

-to discover if participants will conform to a group even of the answer is obvious

Question 2

What was the sample of asch’s study?

Answer 2

-123 us male volunteers

Question 3

What was the procedure of asch’s study?

Answer 3

-participants sit in a room with 7 confederates
-participant is given a line length judging task
-asked to say aloud which line matches line X

Question 4

What did asch find from the study?

Answer 4

-naive participants agreed with confederates incorrect answered on 33% of trials
-75% conformed at least one
-25% never conformed
-most said they conformed to avoid rejection

Question 5

What did asch’s study conclude?

Answer 5

-people conform to fit in (evidence for compliance and normative social influence)

Question 6

What are some strengths to asch’s study?

Answer 6

-highly controlled lab study

Question 7

What’s a negative to asch’s study?

Answer 7

-can’t be generalised (study done on US men)
-task and situation were artificial (don’t represent a natural task where conformity would occur) and deman characteristics (p’s knew they were in a study)

Question 8

What were some of asch’s variations?

Answer 8

-number of confederates varied from 1-16 (conformity increased with higher presence of confederates).
-answers in private (conformity decreased to 12.5%)
-difficulty of task (conformity increased)