Social learning : Conformity

Question 1

Define conformity

Answer 1

Conformity : a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from other people

Question 2

What was the aim of Asch’s research?

Answer 2

To assess the extent to which people will conform to the opinions of others, even when the answer is certain and to investigate what variables affect conformity

Question 3

Why is Asch’s research considered a baseline procedure?

Answer 3

It is the research against which all other studies of conformity are compared to

Question 4

What were the 3 variables affecting conformity investigated by Asch?

Answer 4

1. group size
2. unanimity
3. task difficulty

Question 5

How does group size influence the rate of conformity, as shown by Asch’s research?

Answer 5

• Conformity increases when group size increases.
• Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, so increasing the size of the majority
• Conformity increased with group size (however only up to a point - levelling off when majority was greater than 3 - at 3, conformity to the wrong answer = 31.8%)
• This may be due to pressure to fit in and to be liked by others.

Question 6

What is unanimity and how does it influence the rate of conformity, as shown by Asch’s research?

Answer 6

Unanimity = the extent to which all members of a group agree

• When all the confederates in Asch’s study agreed, there was a higher rate of conformity in the naïve participants
• When Asch introduced a confederate who didn’t conform to everyone else, the rate of conformity in the participants decreased
• This shows that the presence of a non-conformist causes the rate of conformity for the rest of the group to decrease.

Question 7

How does task difficulty influence the rate of conformity, as shown by Asch’s research?

Answer 7

• Conformity increases as task difficulty increases
• Asch increased the difficulty of his line-judging task by making the lines more similar in length, this makes the situation more ambiguous, making it more likely that the participants will look to others for guidance, therefore conformity increased

Question 8

What are the limitations of Asch’s research?

Answer 8

1. Task and situation were artificial:
   - identifying lines task = trivial + there would be no reason not to conform - no consequences
   - groups did not resemble real life - findings can’t be generalised - low external validity
   - P.s knew there were in a research study - demand characteristics
2. Limited application:
   - all P.s were American men
   - other research suggests women are more conformist - care more about fitting in and being liked
   - USA = individualist culture - conformity likely to be lower than in collectivist cultures like China (Bond and Smith)
   - this reduces external validity of research as can’t be applied to all genders and cultures

Question 9

What is a strength of Asch’s research?

Answer 9

There is support from other studies for the effects of task difficulty on conformity
- e.g. Todd Lucas et al. asked P.s to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths qus - P.s were given answers from 3 other students
- P.s conformed more frequently when problems were harder
- This means Asch was correct in suggesting that task difficulty causes conformity to increase

COUNTERPOINT:
- However Lucas el al.’s study found conformity = more complex than Asch suggested
- there are also individual factors which can affect conformity
- for example, people more confident in their maths skills would be less likely to conform compared to those who are less confident
- Asch’s research fails to consider these individual factors