Asch conformity study

what is the aim of the study?

to see if people will conform even if the answer is certain

explain the procedure

‘bassline study’- pps are asked unambiguous questions (have to tell which line is longer) . A group of confederates say the same wrong answer. The naive participant will either give the right answer or the same answer as the confederates

what are the independent variables in the procedure?

group size, unanimity and task difficulty

group size

varied confederates size 1-15. curvilinear relationship. conformity increased

unanimity

put a confederate that did not give the same answers as the other confederates. conformity decreased

task difficulty

conformity incrreased

findings of the study

over 12 trails…

25% of pps never conformed

75% conformed at least once

conclusion of the study

during interviews most pps said they didn’t really believe their conforming answers , but had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed (NSI). few of them said that really believed the groups answers were correct (ISI)

evaluation - conflicting evidence

limitation - Perrin + Spencer (1980) replicated the experiment on a sample of UK engineering students. across 396 trails, only one person conformed

Evaluation - population validity

Limitation -The sample was unrepresentative of the rest of the population - male American young students. Gender matters because of societal norms - America is culturally individualistic and may be less conforme uwin more collectivist cultures e.g patriarchal society

Evaluation - ecological validity

Limitation- Asch’s study was conducted in an artificial environment + may have not reflected real life issues of conformity or resistance. Many participants may have acted differently ne side they are are aware of the experiment, therefore they might act different outside the lab

Evaluation - internal validity

Limitation -Task may have not actually measured what it set out to measure. demand characteristics

Evaluation -supporting evidence

Strength - Jenness 1932

students were asked to guess how many beans were in a jar - they then discusses their estimates and were asked if they want to change their answer. Nearly all pps changed their estimate to be closer to the group estimate - pps changed their answers as they believed that the group estimate was more likely to be right - supports ISI

Evaluation - temporal validity

The results of an experiment may be linked to a particular period of history where conformity was valued. For example, McCarthyism in the 1950s, America was very conformist the Cold War caused fears