Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

What did Asch study?

Answer 2

The extent to which individuals will conform to the opinion of others

Question 3

What was Asch’s baseline study?

Answer 3

123 American men tested. Each participant saw 2 cards. On one was line x. On the other were lines a,b,c. The participants had to say which comparison line was closest to x

Question 4

What were the 3 variables Asch tested for?

Answer 4

• Group size
• Unanimity
• Task difficulty

Question 5

How did Asch carry out the group size variation?

Answer 5

He varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15

Question 6

What did Asch find about group size on conformity?

Answer 6

Curvilinear relationship- conformity increased with group size, but only to a point. 3 confederates= conformity increased to 31.8%

Question 7

How did Asch carry out the unanimity variation?

Answer 7

He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the group

Question 8

What did Asch find about unanimity on conformity?

Answer 8

Conformity rates decreased in the presence of a dissenter. The influence of the majority depends on it being unanimous

Question 9

How did Asch carry out the task difficulty variation?

Answer 9

He increased the difficulty of the line judging task by making the stimulus line and comparison lines more similar to each other

Question 10

What did Asch find about task difficulty on conformity?

Answer 10

Conformity increased when the task became harder. Participants look to others for guidance in ISI

Question 11

What did Fiske say about Asch’s groups?

Answer 11

‘Asch’s groups were not very groupy’

Question 12

What are the strengths of Asch’s study?

Answer 12

• Research support (Lucas et al)

Question 13

What are the limitations of Asch’s study?

Answer 13

• Artificial situation and task (Fiske)
• Limited application
• Ethical issues
• Individual level factors (Lucas et al)

Question 14

LIMITATION-
What evidence is there that Asch’s study contained an artificial task and situation?

Answer 14

• Participants knew they were in a study- demand characteristics. Fiske- ‘Asch’s groups were not very groupy’- findings do not generalise to real-world situations

Question 15

LIMITATION-
How is evidence limited in Asch’s study?

Answer 15

• Participants were American men (gender and cultural bias). Suggestions that women may be more conformist. US= individualist- studies in collectivist countries have higher conformity rates

Question 16

STRENGTH-
What research support is there for the conformity study?

Answer 16

• Lucas et al- participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems. Participants conformed more often when the task was harder. Supports Asch’s task difficulty variation

Question 17

LIMITATION-
How do individual-level factors influence conformity?

Answer 17

• Lucas et al- conformity is more complex than Asch explained. Participants with higher confidence in maths conformed less on hard tasks, than those with low confidence did. Individual-level factors influence conformity by interacting with situational variables (e.g. task difficulty)