Aschs conformity studies

• Who conducted the famous study into conformity?

  Solomon Asch
• What was the main focus of Asch's study?

  Why people yield to majority social influence
• Where was Asch's study conducted?

  Harvard University
• What did Asch believe about Sherif's findings?

  They could be explained by task ambiguity
• What was the aim of Asch's experiment?

  To see if participants would conform
• What did Asch predict about conformity in his study?

  Very few people would conform
• How many male college students participated in Asch's first study?

  50 male college students
• What was the task participants had to perform in Asch's study?

  Identify which line matched the test line
• What percentage of participants conformed at least once?

  74%
• What were the critical trials in Asch's study?

  Trials where confederates gave wrong answers
• What reasons did participants give for conforming?

  They doubted their perceptions or wanted to fit in
• What was the percentage of conformity on critical trials?

  32%
• What did Asch conclude about conformity in unambiguous situations?

  There is strong group pressure to conform
• What is normative social influence?

  Conforming to avoid rejection from the group
• What is informational social influence?

  Doubting one's own judgments to be correct
• What limitation did Asch's study have regarding the sample?

  It was a biased sample of male students
• What does lacking population validity mean in Asch's study?

  Findings cannot be generalized to all groups
• Why does Asch's study lack ecological validity?

  It used an artificial task to measure conformity
• What real-life situations are psychologists interested in regarding conformity?

  Peer pressure in smoking or underage drinking