ASCH

• WHAT THEORY WAS ASCH'S STUDY ON?

  normative social influence (NSI)
• WHAT WAS ASCH'S STUDY ON?

  lines
• WHAT DID ASCH GET PARTICIPANTS TO DO?

  simple line comparison task
• WHAT DID ASCH DISCOVER?

  75% of participants conformed at least once when confederates gave incorrect answers (conformed 37% of the time)
• WHAT WAS THE NORMAL MISTAKE PERCENTAGE ON SIMPLE LINE TASK?

  made mistakes 1% of the time
• CONCLUSION OF ASCH'S STUDY?

  in an obvious situation, an individual can still be influenced by others as they want to be accepted (NSI)
• WHAT DOES NSI CAUSE?

  complying (publicly change behaviour but don't privately change thoughts)
• WHAT TYPE OF EXPERIMENT DID ASCH CONDUCT?

  lab
• PARTICIPANTS OF ASCH'S STUDY?

  123 white, American participants
• HOW DID THE PARTICIPANTS SIT IN ASCH'S STUDY?

  row (confederates before, so they were asked first)
• IN WHAT PERCENTAGE OF INCORRECT TRIALS DID THE PARTICIPANT CONFORM?

  37%
• IN THE CONTROL CONDITION WHAT PERCENTAGE OF TIME WHERE THE PARTICIPANTS INCORRECT WHEN CONFEDERATES GAVE CORRECT ANSWERS?

  1%
• WHAT VARIABLES AFFECT CONFORMITY?

  • group size
  • unanimity
  • task difficulty
• HOW DID ASCH CHANGE GROUP SIZE?

  changing amount of confederates
• HOW DID ASCH CHANGE UNANIMITY?

  adding a non-conforming person/ dissenter
• HOW DID ASCH CHANGE TASK DIFFICULTY?

  making stimulus and comparison lines more similar in length
• WHAT DID ASCH DISCOVER ABOUT THE EFFECT OF GROUP SIZE?

  with 3 confederates giving wrong answers, conformity rose to 31.8% and then plateaued
• WHAT DID ASCH DISCOVER ABOUT UNANIMITY?

  presence of a dissenting confederate meant conformity was reduced by a quarter (if they are supported, they are less likely to conform)
• WHAT DID ASCH DISCOVER ABOUT TASK DIFFICULTY?

  conformity increased with increasing difficulty (as ISI plays a greater role, task is more ambiguous)
• STRENGTH OF ASCH'S STUDY?

  • highly controlled
  • standardised procedure
  • results have high reliability
• WEAKNESSES OF ASCH'S STUDY?

  • research against
  • lacks mundane realism
• WHO DID THE RESEARCH THAT CONTRASTED ASCH'S FINDINGS?

  Perrin and Spencer
• WHAT DID PERRIN AND SPENCER DO?

  repeated Asch's experiment in Britain
• WHAT DID PERRIN AND SPENCER FIND?

  participants only conformed in less than 1% of the trials
• WHY MAY HAVE PERRIN AND SPENCER'S PARTICIPANTS CONFORMED LESS THAN ASCH'S?

  • confidence and competence of students (maths and chemistry)
  • USA period of McCarthyism
• WHAT IS MCCARTHYISM?

  time of anticommunism where people were afraid to be different in the USA
• WHAT DO ASCH'S RESULTS LACK AS A RESULT OF PERRIN AND SPENCER'S FINDINGS?

  lack temporal validity
• WHAT IS CAUSED AS A RESULT OF ASCH'S EXPERIMENT LACKING MUNDANE REALISM?

  • unrealistic task
  • results lack ecological validity
  • study cannot be applied to real life situations of conformity (greater consequences)

  OR

  • lack of realism
  • led participants to guess aim of experiment
  • just responding to demand characteristics
  • results lack internal validity
  • not measuring conformity