Asch's Research

Question 1

what was the aim of Asch’s research?

Answer 1

assess to what extent people conform to the opinions of others even when the situation is unambiguous

Question 2

how many people were in each group of Asch’s study?

Answer 2

7-9 people, one naive ppt and rest were confederates

Question 3

how many ppts were there in Asch’s study?

Answer 3

123 American men

Question 4

what type of experiment was Asch’s study?

Answer 4

laboratory experiment

Question 5

what were ppts in Asch’s study asked to do?

Answer 5

• shown 2 cards; one had 1 standard line other had 3 comparison lines
• asked to say out loud which one of 3 lines matched the 1 standard line

Question 6

how many trials were in Asch’s study?

Answer 6

18

Question 7

how many of the trials did confederates give the wrong answer?

Answer 7

12

Question 8

what were the results of Asch’s study?

Answer 8

• participants conformed and gave the wrong answer 36.8% of times
• 75% of participants conformed at least once
• 25% of participants didn’t conform at all

Question 9

what was the conclusion of Asch’s research?

Answer 9

• people conform to others as they want to fit in with the group and not to be ridiculed

Question 10

what were the variations of Asch’s research?

Answer 10

• group size
• unanimity
• task difficulty

Question 11

how was the method altered for group size?

Answer 11

number of confederates varied from 1-15

Question 12

how did the results alter for group size?

Answer 12

• conformity increased with group size
• 3 confederates = rose to 31.8%
• curvlinear relationship
• presence of more confederates, there was little difference and the conformity rates levelled off.

Question 13

what is unanimity?

Answer 13

extent to which all members of a group agree with each other

Question 14

how was the method altered for unanimity?

Answer 14

• confederate who disagreed with others was introduced (dissenter)
• 2 variations: dissenter gave correct answer OR dissenter gave a different wrong answer from other confederates and naive participant

Question 15

how did the results alter for unanimity?

Answer 15

• conformity decreased in the presence of a dissenter (even if the answer was wrong)

Question 16

how was the method altered for task difficulty?

Answer 16

• making the lines more similar in length, harder to see the difference

Question 17

how did the results alter for task difficulty?

Answer 17

• conformity increased as the situation became more ambiguous (ISI) and ppts wanted to give the correct answer and be right

Question 18

what is a strength of Asch’s study?

Answer 18

• Asch’s research is support from other studies for the effects of task difficulty
• Lucas et al asked ppts to solve easy or hard maths problems
• ppts were given answers from 3 other confederate students and ppts conformed more often when problems were harder
• this shows that Asch is correct in claiming that one of the variables affecting conformity is task difficulty

Question 19

what is a weakness of Asch’s study(artificial)?

Answer 19

• the task and situation was artificial
• ppts may have known that they were a part of research so may have simply gone along with what was expected(demand characteristics)
• task of identifying lines is quite insignificant so really there was no real reason not to conform
• Fiske: Asch’s groups weren’t very groupy, didnt ressemble groups we’d see in everyday life
• findings do not generalise to everyday life situations and when conformity may be important

Question 20

what is a weakness of Asch’s study(g)?

Answer 20

• lacks generalisabilty as ppts were American men
• Neto’s research suggests that women are more conformist as they are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted
• US is an individualist culture(care about themselves) , studies in collectivist(care about social group) cultures, such as China found that the conformity rates are higher
• this means that Asch’s study tells us little about conformity in women and other cultures

Question 21

what is a weakness of Asch’s study?

Answer 21

ethically wrong