Variables Affecting Conformity

Question 1

What 3 variables did Asch research in 1956

Answer 1

• group size
• task difficulty
• unanimity

Question 2

What was the original procedure of Asch’s experiment (1951)

Answer 2

• participant has to look at a ‘standard’ line and then decide which of the three other ‘test lines’ was the same length, without discussing it with another, giving their responses aloud one at a time

-> answer was obvious, but confederates gave the wrong answer (in 12/18 trials)
- naive participant always last / near the end, so they heard the other responses before giving their own

Question 3

Asch’s original experiment findings (1951)

Answer 3

-> 33% of responses incorrect (chance of making an actual mistake = 1%)
-> 75% participants conformed in at least 1/18 trials
-> 5% conformed in every trial
-> 25% never conformed
- majority said they conformed to avoid group disapproval, but still trusted their own judgement

Question 4

How did findings change after Asch changed group size (1956)

Answer 4

Groups with…
- 1 confederate = conformity rate of 3%
- 2 confederates = 13%
- 3 confederates = 32%

Little change to conformity when groups reached 4 (+) confederates

Question 5

How did findings change when Asch changed task difficulty

Answer 5

-> he made the test lines more similar in length
-> level of conformity increased, possibly due to ISI impact
-> due to uncertainty = looking to others for confirmation

Question 6

How did findings change when the group had unanimity

Answer 6

• conformity increased
  -> however, when only one other person gave a different answer, conformity dropped

-> presence of just one who went against the majority reduced conformity to 5% from 33% (even when that confederate gave a different wrong answer to the rest of the group, conformity dropped to 9%)

Question 7

AO3 - P1 (-) Lack of temporal validity

Answer 7

-study was conducted 80 years ago (doesn’t reflect modern)
- proven by Perrin & Spencer (1980) - when they repeated Asch’s original study on engineering students in the UK
- one student conformed in 396 trials
(however, this may have been as the engineering students were more confident)

Question 8

AO3 - P2 + Highly controlled

Answer 8

• included a ‘control’ (the original procedure), then the other groups which only changed one variable
• therefore clear cause and effect relationship

Question 9

P3 - AO3 (-) Limited Application

Answer 9

sample = white, American men
-> can’t be applied esp as women more conformist (Neto)
+ -> cannot be applied to other cultures collectivist cultures (China) are likelier to conform than individualist cultures (USA) due to a higher orientation to the group.
-> volunteer sample so the participants behaviour ≠ rep wider population so no population validity

Question 10

P4 AO3 - Demand characteristics, ecological validity, mundane realism (-) (volunteer sample)

Answer 10

-> demand characteristics, (due to the volunteer sample)
-> task was artificial and unlikely to take place in real life + ‘groups’ didn’t resemble the groups we are in in everyday life
(conformity usually takes place in a social context, often with people we know (rather than strangers) we can say that the study lacked both mundane realism, and ecological validity)

Question 11

P5 AO3 - Ethical issues (-)

Answer 11

• deception (as participants did not know about the confederates, and thought that they were taking part in a test of perception
• lack of informed consent (as they don’t know they were taking part in a conformity study),
• psychological harm (as they were put in a stressful and embarrassing situation.
  -> debrief happened + deception necessary to minimise demand characteristics, but still unethical / not fully justified