Give Asch’s Procedure for Conformity
-Showed PPTS 2 white cards. One card was ‘standard line’ other card was 3 ‘comparisons line’. One of these 3 lines were same length as standard line. PPTS were asked to name the line which was the same as the standard line.
What kind PPTS did Asch’s study include?
How were they put in the group? What it contained?
- 123 American male undergraduates
- Naive ppts, put in group of 6 to 8 confeds. They were not aware of this.
What happened on the first trial in Asch’s study?
- First trials- All Confeds gave right answ then started making errors.
- All confeds instruced to give same wrong answ
- All confeds took part in 12/18 trials where they gave the wrong answ.
Findings of Asch Study
- Percentage of naive ppts that got it wrong.
- % of overall ppts that did not conform
- % of ppts that did conform once
Percentage of naive ppts that got it wrong. -36.8% overall ppts not conform -25% ppts that did conform once -75%
Why did the ppts conform in Asch’s study?
TO avoid rejection - NSI
Name 3 of Asch’s variations
1) Group size
2) Unanimity
3) Task difficulty.
Why Asch did variations?
Investigate in conditions that lead to increase/decrease in conformity.
What Asch found in the group size?
- 3 confeds conformity to the wrong ans rose to 31.8%
- Suggesting that small majority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted there is no need for a majority of more than 3 to confrom.
What Asch found in the Unanimity?
- Introduced a confed who disagreed with others, sometimes giving wrong answ and sometimes correct answ
- Dissenting confed reduced conformity by a quarter leading to naive ppts behaving more independantly.
What Asch found in the Task difficulty?
- He made a line-judging task more difficult by making stimulus line and the comparison more similar.
- Found conformity increased on those conditions.
- Suggests the ISI plays great role when task is harder. As we look for other pple for guidance assume they are right, we are wrong.
Definition of Unanimity
-All the members of group agree with one another.
Who repeated Asch’s study?
Perrin and Spencer 1980
What kind of PPTS did Perrin and Spencer’s procedure have?
-Engineering UK students
How many confromed in Perrin and Spencer’s study?
And why is this?
1 out of 396 conformed
-Because engineering students feel more confident when measuring lines thus less conformists.
Why do you think in Asch’s study pple conformed? And What do you think of our society now? Relating to Perrin and Spencer’s study?
- In 1950s America pple more likely to conform to establish social norms.
- Society changed - pple less likely to conform, alot has changed. This is the reason for Perrin and Spencer 1980 study.
Give a limitation of Asch’s study?
-About society changing
-As society has changed and PPLE less likely to conform, means for Asch: effect is not consistent across situations and across time meaning it is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.
Give another limitation of Asch’s study?
-Artificial task
- Artificial situation/task
- PPTS knew they were in research study and gone along with demand characteristics. However their was no reason to confrom.
Give another limitation of Asch’s study?
-Groups
- Naive ppts were in ‘groups’ but it did not resemble groups part of our everyday life. According to Friske 2014
- Consequences of conformity might be important when we interact in groups in more direct way.
Limitation of findings in Asch’s study?
-What gender the PPTS were?
- All MEN tested in Asch’s study.
- If women were tested they may have been more conformists as they may be more concerned with social relationships + being accepted.
Limitation of findings in Asch’s study?
-Culture
- Only Men from US which is an individualist culture. - Where men are more concerned about themsleves than a socail group
- Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures e.g. china -where social group is more important than indiviual to them.
- Shows that conformity levels are higher than Asch found. His findings only applyto American Males as he didn’t take gender/culture into account
Explain unanimity in relation to conformity
Unanimity refers to the extent that members of a majority agree with one another, and was identified by Asch as a variable that affects conformity.
Àpart from unanimity identify 1 other variable that affects confromity.
Support your ans with evidence
Group size is another variable that affects conformity. Asch found that a group agreement of 3 confederates is enough for a naive participant to conform. 3 confeds who got wrong ans rose to 31.8% conformity rose.
Outline how Task difficulty as a variable in relation to conformity and give evidence to support your answer.
Asch identified task difficulty as a variable that affects conformity. He found that when he made the line judgement task more difficult, conformity levels increased, as the participant was more likely to believe that the confederates were right. This further relates to normative social influence which plays a greater role as pple look to other pple for guidance.
Describe Asch’s study of confromity. Include details of what he found and what he did.
-Asch’s proceduer naive PPTS of 123 American male undergraduates, put in group of 6 to 8 confeds. They were not aware of this. 2 white cards. One card was ‘standard line’ other card was 3 ‘comparisons line’. One of these 3 lines were same length as standard line. PPTS were asked to name the line which was the same as the standard line. -First trials- All Confeds gave right answ then started making errors. All confeds instruced to give same wrong answ All confeds took part in 12/18 trials where they gave the wrong answ.
His findings were the Percentage of naive ppts that got it wrong 36.8%. overall ppts who did not not conform were 25% however ppts that did conform at least once was 75%.
