Conformity: Asch's research

Question 1

What is Asch’s research?

Answer 1

• Asch conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to with social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
• Asch (1951) devised what is now regarded as a classic experiment in social psychology, whereby there was an obvious answer to a line judgement task.
• If the participant gave the incorrect answer it would be clear that this was due to group pressure.

Question 2

Asch’s research: Method

Answer 2

• 123 American male undergraduate students, who believed they were taking part in a vision test.
• Asch used a line judgement task, where he placed one real (naive) p in a room with 6-8 confederates (actors), who had agreed on their answers in advance. The naive participant would always be seated next to last.
• Each p completed 18 trials and the confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 trials (critical trials).
• Asch wanted to see if the real/naive participant would conform to the majority view, even if the answer was clearly incorrect.

Question 3

Asch’s research: Results

Answer 3

On average, the real/naive p’s conformed to the incorrect answer on:
- 32% of the critical trials (overall conformity level).
- 74% of the p’s conformed on at least one critical trial.
- 26% of p’s never conformed.

Question 4

Asch’s research: Conclusion

Answer 4

Asch interviewed his p’s after the experiment to find out why they conformed. Most went along with the group to fit in, or out of fear of being ridiculed/rejected.

Question 5

Asch’s conformity variations.

Answer 5

Following Asch’s original research, numerous variations of his line judgement task were carried out in order to determine which factors influenced conformity levels. These variations include:
1) Group size - whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group.
2) Unanimity (agreement) - if the presence of another, non-conforming person would effect the naive p’s conformity.
3) Task difficulty - the line judging task was made more difficult by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length.

Question 6

Variations in Asch’s experiment: 1. Group size.

Answer 6

• group size being 1 confederate = conformity levels lower (3%).
• group size being 2 confederates = conformity levels lower (12.8%).
• group size being 3 confederates = conformity remained the same (32%). Asch found that with three confederates conformity to the wrong answer rose.
• group size being 15 confederates = conformity it lower (29%).

Question 7

Variations on Asch’s experiment: 2. Unanimity.

Answer 7

• where one of the confederates gave the correct answer throughout = conformity lower (5%).
• where one of the confederates gave a different incorrect answer to the majority = conformity lower (5%). The presence of a dissenter enabled the naive participant to behave more independently.

Question 8

Variations in Asch’s research: 3. Task difficulty.

Answer 8

Where the task was made significantly more difficult, by making the difference between the line lengths significantly smaller = conformity levels higher.
ISI can be applied here, as p’s looked for guidance from others, assuming that they are right in an ambiguous situation.

Question 9

Jenness (1932) - supporting research for Asch.

Answer 9

Supporting research for Asch: Gathered 101 psychology students and required them to each individually estimate how many beans were in a glass bottle (correct answer = 811). Following this, they were separated into groups of three and discuss their answers. After the discussions, each p was asked to give an estimate of how many beans they believed were in the bottle.
Results: Almost all the p’s changed their original answer when they were given the second opportunity to estimate the number of beans in the glass bottle. On average, male p’s changed their answer by 256 beans, and female p’s changed their answers by 383 beans.

Question 10

Limitation of Asch’s study: biased sample.

Answer 10

P: Use biased sample of 123 American males.
E: Cannot generalise results to other populations e.g. female students.
I&D: Means Asch’s samples show beta bias, his research may have ignored or minimised the difference between men and women in relation to conformity.
C: Therefore, Asch’s sample lacks population validity; further research is required to determine whether males and female conform differently.

Question 11

Limitation of Asch’s study: Low external validity.

Answer 11

P: Could be argued Asch’s experiment has low external validity.
E: Asch’s test of conformity was line of judgement task, which is artificial and doesn’t reflect conformity in everyday life, meaning task lacks mundane realism.
C: Therefore, were unable to generalise Asch’s results to other real-life situations of conformity due to lack of application to everyday life.

Question 12

Limitation of Asch’s research: Criticised for being a ‘child of its time’.

Answer 12

P: Criticised for being a ‘child of its time’.
E: Perrin and Spencer (1980) found significantly lower levels of conformity in replication of Asch’s study using engineering students.
I&D: Argued explanations for conformity adopt nomothetic approach as they attempt to provide general principles relating to human behaviour when observed under group pressure from a majority.
C: However, findings by Perrin and Spencer suggest conformity levels have changed over time. Suggests Asch’s experiment lacks temporal validity.