Asch’s Research

Question 1

What did Asch study?

Answer 1

Compliance

Question 2

What did Asch ask?

Answer 2

123 student volunteers to take part in a vision test, each was tested separately and they didn’t know thje other participants in the room were confederates

Question 3

What was Asch’s procedure?

Answer 3

Participants in groups of 7-9 were seated round a table, they were presented with a series of lines, A B C and they were asked to stage which line matched the one in the left, the confederates were instructed to give the wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials

Question 4

What were Asch’s findings?

Answer 4

When the confederate gave the wrong answer, the participant went along with it 36.8% of the time. 75% of pps confirmed at least once, 5% conformed every time and 25% never conformed

Question 5

What were Asch’s conclusions?

Answer 5

The participants went along, as they wanted to be liked from the group (NSI) which leads to compliance

Question 6

What 3 variables affected Asch’s study?

Answer 6

• Group size
• Unanimity
• Task difficulty

Question 7

How did group size affect conformity?

Answer 7

Asch varied the size of the group to include 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 15 confederates. With 1 confederate 3% conformed, with 2 13% and with 3 33%

Question 8

How did unanimity affect conformity?

Answer 8

Asch found that by just one other group member agreeing with the judgment, conformity dropped 5.5%

Question 9

How did task difficulty affect conformity?

Answer 9

Asch made the comparison task more difficult by making the difference in line length much smaller. This increased rates of conformity

Question 10

What are 3 evaluation points?

Answer 10

• Ethical issues: couldn’t fully give consent as they were mislead
• Demand characteristics: knew they were in experiment
• Beta bias: only men studied