Variables affecting conformity Flashcards
Who was RTS conducted by?
Lucas et al
What did Lucas do?
He asked students to solve easy and hard maths problems and the participants were given three other answers from other ‘students’.
What did Lucas find?
He found that participants conformed more often when the problems were difficult rather than easy
Why does Lucas support Asch’s research?
Because it suggests that when the task is harder, conformity increases
What can limit Lucas’ research?
He found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested
What did Lucas find about participants?
He found that participants with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard math’s problems than those with low confidence
What was found in about participants in the maths research?
An individual level factor can influence conformity and interact with situational variables - limiting Asch’s research as he did not research the role of individual factors
What can Asch’s research be criticised for?
Gender bias as an androcentric sample was used
What does an androcentric sample make it difficult to do?
It is difficult to generalise the findings to females as it is suggested that females might be more conformist, regardless of the variable, because they are more concerned about social relationships and are more concerned with being liked by their peers - Neto
What does gender bias do to the validity?
This weakens the external validity as it shows there are some factors which determine someones level of conformity more than the variables suggested
What other bias can Asch’s research be criticised for?
Culture bias as it was conducted in America, a western and individualistic culture
What does culture bias make it difficult to do?
It is difficult to generalise the findings to non-western, collectivist cultures such as China - social group is more important than the individual and may be more Riley to conform to group to be liked regardless of the variable - Bond and Smith
What does culture bias weaken?
The external validity
