sherifs experiment

• method:

  sherif used the auto kinetic effect where he got the participants to measure the distance they thought it moved and got them to share their answer then in groups of 3 he got them to give the answers then retested after individually
• results:

  when alone the participants came up with their own estimates but once in a group the contested tended to conform to give the group estimate and when retested the participants gave a similar answer to the groups
• conclusion:

  the participants were influenced by the group norm and conformed due to informational social influence
• AO3- strengths


  results could be replicated and had high internal validity which increased the validity of the experiment
• AO3- Limitations


  lacks ecological validity as the results do not reflect what would happen in the real wold + also lacks temporal validity so you should be careful when generalising to contemporary society as conformity levels may have changed
• when was sherifs experiment


  1935