variables affecting conformity evaluation

Question 1

(p) one limitation is that the situation and task were artificial

Answer 1

(e)
● asch’s test of conformity, a line judgement task, does not reflect conformity in everyday life

● the task was trivial and there was no reason not to conform

● therefore, we are unable to generalise the results of asch to other real life situations

(c)
● this matters because the study lacks ecological validity and findings may not generalise to everyday life

● where the concequences of conformity are important e.g. on a jury

Question 2

(p) asch’s findings also lack population validity

Answer 2

(e)
● only american men were tested by asch

● however, some research suggests that women may be more conformist than men

● because they may care more about social approval and being accepted

● also, US is an individualist culture

● similar conformity studies with collectivist cultures have found conformity rates to be higher

● because they will value the needs of the group so go along with the groups opinions

(c)
● this means that asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from other cultures

● therefore, they lack generalisability

Question 3

(p) one strength is that there is supporting research for asch’s variations

Answer 3

(e)
● lucas et al study involving difficult maths problems supports asch’s task difficulty

● as when problems became more tricky, conformity levels increased

(c)
● this shows that asch was correct that task difficult is one variable affecting conformity

(counter)
● however, conformity may be more complex than asch thought

● and also related to confidence (high confidence = less conformity)

● therefore, individual factors should also be considered when investigating conformity

Question 4

(p) a further problem is that asch’s study raises ethical issues

Answer 4

(e)
● this is because the participants experienced deception

● they were told they were being assessed on perception, but, in reality, they were being tested on conformity

● also, participants were not protected from psychological harm (e.g. shame / embarrassment / self critical from being the ‘odd one out’)

(c)
● this is a problem because unethical studies may give social influence research a bad reputation

● putting participants off from being willing to take part in future studies

(counter)
● however, we can argue that asch needed to deceive his participants

● as they may have shown demand characteristics and not conformed naturally