Asch

• Explain how Asch’s conformity research illustrates one of these features of science

  replicability – Asch’s studies had standardised procedures (eg the number of confederates; length of lines etc) which meant that they could be repeated to assess reliability of the findings; this increased the validity of the conclusions drawn

  theory construction – Asch’s findings led to the development of explanations of conformity, e.g. that people will conform to group pressure to avoid ridicule (normative social influence)

  hypothesis testing – Asch’s research tested the assumption that naive participants would conform to an obviously wrong answer when placed under group pressure; this was achieved by manipulating an IV (fake/genuine answer) to measure the effect on the DV and keeping other (possible confounding) variables constant.
• outline three findings from Asch’s research into conformity

  naïve participants gave a wrong answer about 37% of the time

  participants conformed on 32% of critical trials

  25% of participants did not conform

  5% conformed every time

  the control group conformed 1% of the time

  increasing the size of the majority increased conformity

  increasing task difficulty increased conformity

  presence of a dissenter who did not conform reduced conformity (to 5%)

  withdrawal of a dissenter led to increased conformity

  writing the answer down (rather than saying aloud) reduced conformity individual differences, eg highly confident individuals conformed less