what was the aim of Asch (1951)
to investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers
what was the procedure of Asch (1951)
- laboratory experiment where 123 white USA males participated in a ‘vision test’
- a naïve participant was put in a room with 7 confederates
- line judgement task - each trial ptps had to say (out loud) which of comp lines same length as standard line X - responses agreed in advance
- tested in groups 6 - 8 - only one ptp genuine
how many trials and critical trials were there
18 trials
12 critical trials > confederates gave the exact wrong answer
how many participants conformed to the majority in Asch (1951)
- genuine ptps agreed with conf incorrect answers 37% of time
- 25% never conformed/gave wrong answer
how do we know that participants conformed due to group pressure in Asch (1951)
- Asch carried out a control condition with no confederates to assess how accurate individual judgement was
- less then 1% gave the wrong answer representing the unambiguous nature of the task
what were the 3 variables tested by asch?
group size, unanimity, task difficulty
how did asch test group size? what were the findings?
test:
- wanted to know whether size of the group > agreement of group
- varied number of confederates from one-15
findings
- found curvlinear relationship between group szie and conformity rate
- conf increases to point as only 3 confs - conformity rose to 31.8%
- but 15 dropped slightly - sus
- most people very sensitive to view of others - just few confs enough to sway opinion
how did asch test unanimity? what were the findings?
- wondered if presence of non-conforming person would affect naive ptp’s conformity
- introduced a dissenter (diag with others) - one variation gave correct + other gave incorrect
findings:
- genuine ptp’s conformed less often in presence of dissenter - free the naive ptp to behave more independently
- true even when disagreed with gen ptp
- non-conformity likely when cracks in unanimity seen
how did asch test task difficulty? what were the findings?
- wanted to know whether making task more difficult would affect degree of conformity
- increased difficulty by making stimulus line + comparison lines more similar in length - making it harder for ptp’s to see difference
findings: - found conformity increased - situation more ambiguous when task becomes harder - natural to look for others for guidance (ISI)
how does conformity and obedience differ?
conformity:
- change is an individual decision
- due to group pressure
- group of the same status
- conform to act similarly to those influencing us
- negative - do not want to feel loss of identity
obedience:
- direct request to change behaviour
- due to one person
- person of higher status
- do no act similarly to the one influencing
- positive - can happily admit to it
evaluate asch 1951
why is Asch (1951) being artificial a limitation
- laboratory experiment
- participants knew it was an experiment so may have acted different to support the study (demand characteristics)
- Susan Fiske (2014) - groups do not resemble group experiences in everyday life
- low ecological validity
- judging lines cannot be applied to everyday life so is not an accurate reflection on conformity in social situations
why is Asch (1951) biased and what is the limitation of this?
- Asch studied on 123 USA males
- experiment is androcentric and culturally biased while belonging to the same age group
- lacks population validity
- cannot be generalised to females, other cultures, other age groups as it is unknown whether they would conform the same way
- Bond and Smith (1996) show in a collectivist society like china, conformity rates are higher as social groups are more important then the individual
how is high control a strength of asch?
- included variations within his study (size, difficulty, unanimity)
- collected a volunteer sample
- was a laboratory experiment
- ensures a cause-effect relationship can be established between the variables
- high internal validity - results are valid
what is research to support asch?
- how does Lucas et al (2006)
- asked participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems
- answers given from 3 other students (confederates)
- conformity rates higher when task harder
- supports Asch’s theory on task difficulty
- replicable so reliable as results can be seen in supporting studies
what is a counterpoint to research to support asch?
- suggests conformity is more complex than explored by asch
- could be due to individual factors influence by interacting situational variables eg. participants with more confidence in maths ability conformed less
what are the ethical issues of asch’s experiment?
- deception
- although debriefed at the end
- negative psychological effect of humiliation
-benefits of Asch’s research outweigh the ethical costs because the potential practical benefits are great and the stress caused to participants was minimal
