social influence: conformity Aschs variables

Question 1

outline Asch’s line experiment into conformity
• aim
• procedure
• findings
• conclusions

Answer 1

aim - to investigate the degree to which people would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers
procedure- lab experiment, 7-9 people looking at display of 3 lines. had to say which one was the same as the stimulus line
the correct answer was obvious
all participants except one were confederates and gave incorrect answers 12/18 on critical trials
findings- 37% conformed on
75% at least one wrong answer
5% conformed to all wrong answers
conclusions- strong tendency to conform to group pressures
motivated by NSI

Question 2

name the 3 variables affecting conformity

Answer 2

task difficulty
group size
unanimity

Question 3

describe Asch’s task difficulty variation in affecting conformity

Answer 3

PROCEDURE - Asch increased the difficulty by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines similar to each other in lengths so correct answer was less obvious
FINDINGS - when task was more difficult participants were more likely to conform to wrong answer
WHY did this influence conformity? - ISI plays greater role when task is more difficult, this is because the situation is more ambiguous, so more likely to look for guidance and assume they are right

Question 4

describe Asch’s group size variation in affecting conformity

Answer 4

PROCEDURE - varying numbers of confederates (1-15)
FINDINGS - with one confederate and one real participant conformity was low at 3% to 13% with 2 confederates and 32% with 3 confederates
WHY did this influence conformity? - due to NSI participants may conform to majority to avoid disapproval
however increasing size of majority beyond three did not increase levels of conformity

Question 5

describe Asch’s unanimity variation in affecting conformity

Answer 5

PROCEDURE - asch introduced a confederate who disagreed with the others
sometimes giving correct answer and sometimes wrong answer
FINDINGS - when confederate gave right answer conformity to wrong answers dropped to 5.5%
when gave the wrong answer conformity dropped to 9%
WHY did this influence conformity? - presence of dissenter enables naive participant to behave more independently

Question 6

EVAL - methodology used in asch’s research into conformity

Answer 6

• conducted in a lab
• variables controlled completely e.g manipulating group size is a strength because it means level of conformity is likely to be a result of the manipulation
however research lacks mundane realism- research doesn’t tell us about conformity in real everyday situations

Question 7

EVAL - asch’s research may represent a child of its time

Answer 7

took place in particular period of history in the USA when conformity was high
however less likely to conform in subsequent decades
replicated asch’s study with engineer students and found 1 conformed on 396 trials
limitation because it questions the temporal validity

Question 8

EVAL - cultural bias into asch’s research

Answer 8

did not take cultural differences into account
participants all from USA, an individualistic culture who are more concerned with themselves than social group (less likely conform)
need to be careful generalising results to people outside of USA

Question 9

EVAL - ethical issues in asch’s research into conformity

Answer 9

real participants were deceived and unable to give fully informed consent
however researchers have argued that deception was necessary in this experiment to avoid demand characteristics