what are the strengths of Asch’s study?
it was highly controlled which means results are likely to be highly reliable
what is the first weakness of Asch’s study?
- Perrin and spencer conducted sae study in Britain and found ppts only conformed <1% of the trials
- Asch’s study was conducted in a period of Mccarthyism where people were afraid to be different. Therefore lacks temporal validity as behaviour reflects the culture of the time
what is the second weakness of Asch’s study?
it lacks mundane realism as comparing lines is an unrealistic task therefore the results lack ecological validity.
what is the third weakness of Asch’s study?
the lack of realism in task may lead ppts to guess the aim and for them to respond to demand characteristics. Causing the result to lack internal validity
what is a strength of ZImbardo’s study?
it has practical application because it helps furthers our understanding of behaviours displayed in prisons and can help improve the structure of the prison system
what is the 2nd strength of Zimbardo’s study?
there was a high level of control e.g. all mentally healthy ppts. This will ensure there is a high internal validity as behaviour would not be due to mental issues but conformity to social roles.
What was a weakness of Zimbardo’s study?
lacks ecological validity
- results collected may not apply to real prisons
- ppts knew it was not a real prison so may attempt to respond the aims and act like real prisoners due to the lack of mundane realism
what was the second weakness of Zimbardo’s study?
may not be generalisable to all
-only people with a certain personality/characteristics to volunteer for the study which is not representative of the the wider population
what was a weakness of Milgram’s study?
there were ethical issues
- ppts were not informed of their right to withdraw
- had potential to cause psychological harm to ppts
- ppts were decived(increases internal validity )
what was a strength of Milgram’s study?
it had a high internal validity
- Milgram interviewed ppts after and many reported that they thought the shocks were real which shows its truly measuring obedience.
what was the 2nd weakness of Milgram’s study?
its not generalisable
- it’s not representative of the American population as it is all male
- volunteer sampling was used so only a certain type of people who were interested signed up
what was the 3rd weakness of Milgram’s study?
it lacks mundane realism
-giving shocks to someone in a lab is not reflective of obedience in everyday life.
strength of social support as an explanation social influence
- there is research too support it
- Asch’s study showed that 63% of the time individuals managed to resist the pressure to conform to a group people all giving an incorrect answer to a visual task. However when 1 person gave the correct answer ,resistance increases to 95%
weakness of social support as an explanation of resistance to social influence
It has been argues locus of control can influence resistance to social influence.
strength of locus of control as an explanation social influence
-given credit by research evidence
Oliner and Oliner (1988) interviewed non-jewish people who lived through holocaust and compared characteristics of people who had protected and rescued(disobeying nazi) vs those who didn’t.
-Those who protected were more likely to have dispositions reflecting an internal locus of control compared to the other group
weakness of locus of control as an explanation social influence
it has been argued social support can affect resistance to social influence
moscovici (1969) study intro
-lab experiment with 172 female ppts with no colour blindness
DV- the percentage of trials where people said the slides were incorrectly green
moscovici (1969) study procedure
-ppts were put in groups of 6.Groups contained 4 ppts and 2 confederates.
-They were asked to estimate the colour of 36 slides.All the slides were blue but of different brightness
There were 2 experimental conditions:
-consistent-2 confeds called the slides green on all trials
-inconsistent-the 2 confeds called the slides green 24 times and blue 12 times
moscovici (1969) study findings
- ppts in consistent condition called the slides green in 8% of the trials
- ppts in the inconsistent condition called the slides green in 1% of the trials
- ppts in the control condition called the slides green in 0.25% of the trials
