Sherif Research

Question 1

What did Sherif study?

Answer 1

Internalisation

Question 2

What did Sherif’s carry out?

Answer 2

A lab experiment with a repeated measures design

Question 3

What did Sherif use?

Answer 3

The auto kinetic effect (an optical illusion where the dot appears to move)

Question 4

What was Sherif’s procedure?

Answer 4

Participants asked to estimate how far the light moved and in what direction, there was no right answer

Question 5

What were the 2 conditions?

Answer 5

1) participants tested alone and asked for estimates
2) placed in groups of 3, putting potok who had very different estimates together

Question 6

What were Sherif’s findings?

Answer 6

When participants answered in groups, they moved their estimates to be closer to other people’s answers, when asked individually after the group participants still provided an answer similar to the group norm

Question 7

What was Sherif’s conclusion?

Answer 7

They internalised their view, they changed their mind about their estimate because of ISI, they wanted to be right

Question 8

What are 3 evaluation points?

Answer 8

• Lacks ecological validity: can’t be generalised to real life situations
• Ethical issues: believed light was moving
• Beta bias: only male participants