Asch Conformity

Question 1

Procedure?

Answer 1

• 123 male participants take part in a vision test
• given a line and had to pick out of 3 other options which one seemed to be the closest in length
• naive pp in a room with 7 confederates
• confederates have same wrong answer 12/16 times

Question 2

How many times did confederate give the same wrong answer?

Answer 2

12/16

Question 3

What was the error rate and what does this show

Answer 3

0. 04%

- how easy the test was

Question 4

what percentage of pp’s conformed

Answer 4

34%

Question 5

what does the difference in error rate to conformity rate show?

Answer 5

• it was a big increase

- low error rate shows how easy the test was

Question 6

give 3 evaluation points-

Answer 6

• cant be generalised
• unconvincing confederates
• only applicable to that time period

Question 7

name the 3 situational variables of conformity

Answer 7

-task difficulty
-unanimity
size of majority

Question 8

why cant the study be generalised? (evaluation)

Answer 8

• only used american middle class males
• generalisation would incur beta bias
• didn’t use a wide range of people
• not reflective of other cultures

Question 9

why is it only applicable to america in that time period? (evaluation)

Answer 9

• test done when mccarthyism was widespread and conformity was a social norm
• cannot be applied to other contexts and lacks temporal validity

Question 10

what experiment supports that is it only applicable to america in that time period (evaluation)

Answer 10

• perrin and spencer
• conducted later study found 1/400 conformed
• shows ash’s study lacks temporal validity

Question 11

unconvincing confedertates (evaluation)

Answer 11

• confederates were not convincing enough
• pp’s may have realised and demonstrated conformity as they believed the researcher may have wanted them too
• demand characteristics
• mundane, didn’t reflect real life

Question 12

explain task difficulty?

Answer 12

• asch made difference in line length closer= harder
• found that conformity rose
• influenced by self efficacy
• lucas et al found that increasing difficulty increased self efficacy eg. maths problems, those more confident were less likely to conform
• links to ISI as the np wants to be correct, situation more ambiguous

Question 13

explain size of the majority?

Answer 13

-Asch found 13% conformity= 2 confederates
34% conformity= 3 confederates
-further increase made no difference
-BOND AND SMITH FOUND THAT conformity best with 4/5 confederates
-3-7 pp’s optimum point
-NSI and ISI, believe majority is correct+fit in

Question 14

what is the optimum group size in conformity

Answer 14

3-7

Question 15

explain unanimity of the majority

Answer 15

• originally all confederates gave same wrong answer
• some confederates disagreed with majority-conformity dropped bellow 25%
• didn’t matter if dissenter gave a different incorrect answer they showed independent behavior