asch

• baseline study

  Aim was to see if people would conform in an unambiguous situation
• Baseline study

  • 123 American males
  • Shown a line and 3 comparison lines
  • Had to state which line was the same length as the original line
  • 12/18 trials had a confederate give incorrect answers
• Asch study variations


  • Unanimity - one confederate gave the correct answer in critical trials
  • Conformity decreased to 5.5%
  • Group size - conformity increases to 32% in a group of 3, did not increase more after a group of 3
  • Task difficulty - more ambiguous + unclear answer, conformity increased
• Asch study


  • Artificial task
  • Judging the length of lines
• Asch study doesn't reflect conformity in day to day life so lacks mundane realism and ecological validity
• Mundane realism


  The extent to which a study reflects real-life situations
• Ecological validity


  The extent to which findings can be generalised to real-world settings
• Asch study evaluation


  • Controlled lab study
  • Controls for extraneous and confounding variables (e.g. temperature of the room, time of day)
  • Gives findings internal validity
• Asch study is not generalisable as it only used male American participants
• Other cultures and genders may produce different results, so Asch study lacks population validity
• Population validity


  The extent to which findings can be generalised to other populations