research into ISI & NSI

• Arthur Jenness (1932) what were they investigating

  to see if individual judgements of jelly beans in a jar was influenced by group discussions
• what was the procedure - Arthur Jenness(1932)

  1. participants made own judgement
  2. then discussed estimates in groups
  3. group estimates were made
  4. participants then made a second judgement
• what were the findings?- Arthur Jenness(1932)

  1. the second estimate tended to converge their group estimate
  2. the average change of opinionwas greater amounf females
• what was the conclusion -Arthur Jenness (1932)

  • the judgements of individuals are affected by majority influence
  • disscussion is effective in changing opinions
• what are the evaluation points - Arthur Jenness (1932)

  • the study was labatory based lacks mudane realism
  • could include both ISI and NSI
• Solomon Asch (1955)- what were they investigating?

  how much an individual would conform to a majority who gave obvious incorrect answers
• what was the procedure - Solomon Asch (1955)

  1. told 123 male american student volenteers it was a test of viual perception
  2. individual participant were place with 7-9 confederates
  3. had to say which line comparison matched the picture
  4. 18 trials 12 of them were critical where the confedirates would say the wrong answer
  5. control condition of 36 who did the tests prior to show people could answer the questions correctly
• what were the findings - Solomon Asch (1955)

  • control group had an error rate of 0.04
  • on critical trialswas 32%conformity rate
  • 75% of participants conformed at least once
  • 5% of participants conformed to all 12 crotical trials
• what were the 3 catagories of conformity that occured - Solomon Asch(1955)

  .distortion of action-publicaly not privately to avoid ridicule

  .distortion of perception-perception must actually be wrong

  .distortion o judgement-doubts concerning accuracy of their judgements conformed to majority view
• what were the conclusions -Solomon Asch

  .judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions even when they are obviously wrong

  .big individual differences in the amount to which people are affected by majority influence
• what was the evaluation -Solomon Asch (1955)

  . only one participant was tested at a time (time consuming and uneconomical)

  .situation was unreaistic so lacked mundane realism

  .unethical as it involved deceit
• what were they investigating - Mori & Aria (2010)

  to reproduce the Asch experiment without the need for confederates
• what was the procedure- Mori & Aria (2010)

  1)104 japanese undergraduates were put into same sex groups of 4

  2)they had to say which line matched the stimulus line

  3)wore sunglasses to "prevent glare" but they were polorising lenses

  4)the third person in each group saw shorter or longer lines

  5)did the same tests in Asch study

  6) completed a questionnaire asking if they noticedothers answering differently,if they were influnenced by their answers
• what were the findings- Mori & Aria (2010)

  . 78 majority participants who saw lines correctly answered incorrectly 8.2% of the time

  .26 minority particiants who saw the incorrect lines answered 19.6% incorrectly women signifficantly more 28.6%
• what was the conclusions- Mori & Aria (2010)

  .minority participants noticed their answers were different but none reported suspisions ( no demand characteristics)

  .cultural or generational differences have occured since Asch study

  .conformity cannot of occured due to fear of ridicule
• what were the evaluation points- Mori & Aria (2010)

  .procedure is unethical

  .both ISI & NSI could have occured

  .lack mudane realism

  .may be more externaly valid as participants knew eachother (conformity usually occurs amoung aquainted people)