Ash and variables affecting conformity

Question 1

procedure

Answer 1

• looked at lines of different lengths
• took turns to call out which of the 3 lines was the same length as the standard line
• real participant always answered 2nd to last
• on 12/18 trails the confederates were told to give the same wrong answer.

Question 2

background of Asch’s study

Answer 2

• volunteers thought they were taking part in a visual discrimination task
• all but 1 of the participants were really confederates
• real aim of study was to see how the real participant would react to the behaviour of the confederates

Question 3

findings

Answer 3

-on the 12 critical takes, the conformity rate was 33%
-1/4 of the participants never conformed on any of the critical trails
-1/20 of the participants conformed on all 12 critical trails.
-to conform that the stimulus lines were obvious there was a control condition without the distraction of confederates giving wrong answers.
-in this condition participants made mistakes 1% of the time.
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Question 4

what happened when Asch interviewed the participants afterwards?

Answer 4

-the majority of participants who conformed had continued privately to trust their own perceptions, but changed their behaviour by giving incorrect answers to avoid disapproval from the other members

Question 5

explain the effect of the group size variable on conformity

Answer 5

• little conformity when majority consisted of 1 or 2 confederates.
• when there was 3 confederates conformity increased to 30%
• further increases in the size of the majority did not increase conformity levels, indicating that the size of the majority is important but only up to a point.

Question 6

explain the effect of the unanimity of the majority on conformity

Answer 6

-when the real participant was given the support of either another real participant or a confederate conformity levels dropped, to just 5.5%

Question 7

explain the effect of the difficulty of the task and levels of conformity

Answer 7

• in the condition where the differences between the line lengths were much smaller the level of conformity increased.

Question 8

explain the limitation that Asch’s research may be ‘a child of it’s time’

Answer 8

• Asch’s findings unique as took place when the US was in the grip of McCarthyism (a strong anti-communist period when people were scared to go against majority so likely to conform more)
• Perrin and Spencer did a Asch like study in the uk in the 1980 and they obtained only one conforming response out of the 396 trials

Question 9

explain the limitation that there are problems with determining the effect of group size

Answer 9

• Bong suggests a limitation of research in conformity is that studies have only used a limited range of majority sizes.
• Investigators stay with Asch’s conclusion that 3 is theybest majority size.
• Bond points out that no other studies (apart from Asch’s) have used a majority size greater than 9 and in other conformity studies the range of majority sizes used are smaller (between 2 and 4)
• this means we know very little about the effect of larger majority sizes on conformity levels

Question 10

explain the limitation of unconvincing confederates

Answer 10

• it would have been difficult for the confederates to act convincingly when giving the wrong answer. This proposes problems for the validity of the study.
• Mori and Arai over came this problem by making the participants were glasses with special filters.
• 3 participants in each group wore identical glasses and the 4th wore a different pair.
• this meant tat they judged a different (to the rest of the group) comparison line matched to the standard line.
• for female participants the results were the same as Asch’s. Suggests confederates in original study were convincing.

Question 11

explain the limitation of cultural differences in conformity

Answer 11

• Smith analysed results of Asch type studies across different cultures.
• average conformity rate across different cultures was 31.2%
• average conformity rate for individual cultures (Europe and us) was 25%
• average conformity rate for collectivist cultures (Africa, Asia) was 37%.
• it has been suggested that a high level on conformity arises in collectivist cultures because it is viewed more favourable, binds the communities together.