INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS - ATTRACTION - CONFORMITY (Asch 1956)
17 important questions on INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS - ATTRACTION - CONFORMITY (Asch 1956)
What is the role of conformity in explaining human behavior?
- Try to be part of the "in-group"
- Change appearance or speech
- Connect with social identity theory
What were the results of the 12 critical trials in the study?
- 75% of participants conformed at least once across the 12 critical trials.
- 25% never conformed, always giving the correct answer.
- In the control condition, less than 1% gave the wrong answer.
What is informational social influence?
- E.g., trust a friend's math judgment
- Pluralistic ignorance: not reacting when no one else does
- Higher grades + faster learning
- Never study anything twice
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What are the main criticisms of the retrospective self-report in Asch's study?
- Retrospective self-report relied on participants remembering thoughts, not real-time data.
- Questionable exaggeration: Some argue study overstates group pressure (only 75% conformed at least once, not always).
- Temporal validity: Cultural norms changed since 1950s; conformity rates may differ today.
What reasons did participants give for conforming in interviews?
- Thought they were wrong (distortion of perception).
- Were unsure of the answer (distortion of judgment).
- Didn’t want to be ridiculed or stand out (distortion of action – normative influence).
What is normative social influence?
- E.g., agreeing on a film choice with a group
What was the sample used in the study?
- 123 male undergraduate students from the USA.
- All were told they were taking part in a "vision test."
Describe the sampling method and any bias present.
- Opportunity sampling: male students available at the university.
- Sampling bias: Only males, all students, all from the USA (not representative of all people).
What is the main ethical issue with Asch’s conformity study?
What are the strengths of the study?
- Clear IV/DV: Cause-and-effect between group pressure and conformity.
- Control group: Task was unambiguous.
- Standardized paradigm: Highly replicable.
- Quantitative data: Allows statistical comparison.
- Post-experiment interviews: Insight into conformity.
Why is Asch’s conformity study a classic study on conformity?
What was the aim of Asch's 1956 study?
What was the method of research used in the study?
- Laboratory experiment (highly controlled setting).
- Used the Asch line-judgment paradigm.
Define the independent variable (IV) in the study.
- The presence of a unanimous majority giving incorrect answers.
How was the dependent variable (DV) measured?
- Level of conformity, measured by:
- Whether the participant gave the wrong answer to match the group.
- How often they conformed across the 12 critical trials.
List the control variables (CVs) used in the study.
- Same line stimuli (cards with lines) for all trials.
- Same number of trials (18 total, 12 critical).
- Same position for the naive participant (always answered second-to-last).
- Same number of confederates (6 per group).
- Same instructions and experimenter behavior.
- Control condition tested task clarity (no group pressure).
Summarize the simplified procedure of the study.
- Each study session had 1 naive participant + 6 confederates.
- Shown Card 1 (one line) and Card 2 (eight lines of different lengths).
- Task: Say which line on Card 2 matched the line on Card 1 in length.
- Trial structure: 18 trials total.
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