What was Asch’s baseline procedure in 1950?
- Each participant were shown two large white cards in each trial. - Line x on one card was the standard line. Lines A, B, C are 3 comparison lines, one of the lines are clearly the same length as the standard line. - Participants had to say out loud which was the right answer, but stooges said the wrong answer. - Participants believed stooges to also be real participants
How many men were involved?
123 American men
What were the variables investigated by Asch?
- Group size - Unanimity - Task difficulty - Anonymity
What affect did group size have on conformity?
Conformity increased with group size to a certain point (up to about 3 confederates). Many incorrect answers lead to the participant being suspicious of the true aims of the study
What affect did lack on unanimity (all in agreement) have on conformity?
Made conformity decrease. The participants did not have any group pressure pushing for a single answer
What affect did task difficulty have on conformity?
As task difficulty increased, so did conformity. Line differences were made less obvious, lack of clarity causes participants to look for conformation from others who may know better (ISI)
What affect did anonymity have on conformity?
Conformity decreased. Participant answered in private. Elimination of normative social influence, participants can’t be judged.
Why was Asch’s study considered a ‘child of the time?’
His work would not get the same results now. This experiment happened after WW2, most men had been in the military and told not to ask questions
What were the results?
-Control group 0.7% gave the wrong answer -Experimental condition 37% gave the wrong answer So social influence caused the large error in experimental condition.
What did the research tell us?
People will conform to the judgements of others even if the answer is wrong
Evaluation of the study
2/3 participants did not conform Weak conformity
Ethical issues of the study
Deception and anxiety. Naive participants were decieved because they thought other people were involved in the procedure. This can be solved by debriefing participants after.
What was the control group?
No confederates, only real participants.
Why is there limited application of the study?
- It’s artificial = participants knew they were in a study so may have shown demand characteristics. - Task was relatively trivial = no reason not to conform - Findings do not generalise to real world situations - Men only = Asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in men and people from other cultures
Research support for normative social influence (NSI)
When Asch interviews his participants some said they conformed because they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and were afraid of disapproval.
Research support for informational social influence (ISI)
Lucas et al found participants conformed more to incorrect answers given when math problems were difficult. Participants did not want to be wrong so followed others for an answer.
Individual differences for normative social influence (NSI)
A limitation is that NSI does not predict conformity in every case. Some people are greatly concerned with being liked by others. These people are more likely to conform - have a strong need for ‘affiliation’
Zimbardos research into conformity of social roles
He set up a mock prison in basement of psychology department at Stanford university. 21 male students picked as emotionally stable. Students randomly assigned prison or guard.
Why is there so much violence in prisons?
Situational (due to life inside prison) and dispositional (due to personality of inmates)
Uniforms in Zimbardos research
- Prisoners were given a smock to wear and a cap to wear and were given a number to be identified by
- Guards had a wooden club, handcuffs and mirror shades
- Uniforms created a loss of personal identity (de-individualisation) and meant they were more likely to conform to social role
Why did Zimbardo end the study early?
Study ended early after 6 days because prisoners showed signs of psychological disturbance and they became hysterical
- Guards became too brutal and aggressive (depsite never showing these characteristics before). They enjoyed the power they had
Conclusions related to social roles in Zimbardos study
- Social roles have a strong influence on individuals behaviour
- Guards became brutal and prisoners submissive
- Even volunteers who were only there for a day found themselves behaving as though they were in a prison and not a psychological study
Evaluation of Zimbardos study
- Zimbardo had high control over variables like participants and their roles. Increased internal validity as researcher eliminated personality differences so any changes to their behaviour must have been due to the role itself
- Lack of realism - Participant performaces were due to stereotypes which suggests the findings of SPE tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons
- Conforming to a social role comes easily, as being given a role of guard will inevitably make pariticpants brutal as that is the behaviour associated with the role (but does not explain non brutal guards)
- Only a third of guards behaved brutally, most guards were able to resist situational pressures of to conform to brutal role
- Suggests zimbardo overstated his view that participants were conforming to social roles in real prison, giving study high degree of internal validity
Ethical issues and problems with Zimbardos study
- Participant observation bias = Observer bias was present so study lost objectivity and therefore has reduced validity. He lost sight of aims of study so harm came to participants
- Lack of fully informed consent as they didn’t consent to being arrested at home.
- Demand characterstics as they knew they were being studied and were being paid for it. They acted how they believe they should act which reduced ecological validity as data in unrepresentative of their true behaviour
- No protection from harmas they were forced into things by guards and had loss of indentity, were dehumanised which loead to decline in mental health
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Research methods102
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Biopsychology32
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SLT: Conformity25
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SLT: Obedience26
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SLT: Resistance to Social Influence7
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SLT: Minority Influence8
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SLT: Social Influence and Social Change9
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SLT: Key Terms11
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Biological Approach18
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Behaviourist approach13
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Cognitive Approach15
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Social Learning Theory approach18
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Psychodynamic approach58
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Humanistic approach27
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Psychopathology91
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Attachment87
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Wundt and introspectry and origins of psychology4
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Forensic Psychology0
