Asch HJ

• Psychology
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• BTEC

Variables affecting conformity

Key Details

123 particpants

all male 

all students from 3 institutions

18 trials

12 critical trials

generally summarised to 1/3

Factors affecting Confomity

Group size

Unanimity

Task Difficulty

How many people in a group do you think that you need to bring about normative social influence NSI?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Group Size

Group Size

Discuss

What size group was needed to have a significant effect

1. 3
2. 5
3. 10
4. 15

Group Size

Little conformity at 1-2

steep increase at 3

little change after 3

Unanimity

What if the person says what you are thinking?

 

What if they give a different wrong answer?

Ally gives the same answer you are thinking the conformity would drop from 33% to_________

1. 0
2. 5.5
3. 9.5
4. 15.5

The other wrong answer

1. 20
2. 10
3. 9
4. 2

Unanimity

what if the person says what you are thinking?

5.5%

what if they give a different wrong answer?

9%

Task Difficulty 

Generalised conclusion, conformity increases because?

• You have the original NSI
• but you then get ISI
• 0verall conformity will therefore be higher

Procedure

Task difficulty is increased by making the lines closer in length

Complete the numbers Quiz

Complete School examples 

3

123

12

5.5%

9%

75%

33%

18

conformed once

critical trials

pps

ally correct answer

ally different answer

group size

overall conformity

Total trials

A child of its time

This can be a four layered evaluation.

1. Based on the definition of McCarthyism - would we expect higher or lower conformity now?

a vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950–4. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, though most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party.

Layer 1

A limitation of the work of Asch’s experiment is it could be considered a ‘child of its time’ because it was carried out in a time of McCarthyism where people were scared to go against the majority and so more likely to conform.

(lacks temporal validity)

What is the relevance of Perrin and Spencer to the temporal validity of Asch?

Layer 2

Perrin and Spencer then tested this by repeating it in the 1980s and found that there was very little conformity suggesting as the times have changed conformity rates have declined.

Any issues with the population validity of this study

Layer 3

However, the sample in this case was engineering students and they may have had high self-confidence in the task which buffered them from the pressure of conformity. 

Perrin and Spencer

Repeated the study this time using juvenile delinquents as the subjects and probation officers as the group.

They found similar findings as Asch

Why might there be issues with this study and what might it therefore tell us about conformity?

Layer 4

Indeed, in a follow up on juvenile delinquents and their probation officer’s similar levels were found to Asch showing that conformity is determined by the perceived cost of not conformity in any given situation. 

E1 - A limitation of the work of Asch’s experiment is it could be considered a ‘child of its time’ because it was carried out in a time of McCarthyism where people were scared to go against the majority and so more likely to conform

• A limitation of the work of Asch’s experiment is it could be considered a ‘child of its time’ because it was carried out in a time of McCarthyism where people were scared to go against the majority and so more likely to conform.
• Perrin and Spencer then tested this by repeating it in the 1980s and found that there was very little conformity suggesting as the times have changed conformity rates have declined. However, the sample in this case was engineering students and they may have had high self-confidence in the task which buffered them from the pressure of conformity. 
• Indeed, in a follow up on juvenile delinquents and their probation officer’s similar levels were found to Asch showing that conformity is determined by the perceived cost of not conformity in any given situation. 

Demand Characteristics

1. Demand Characteristics are when pps in an experiment work out the nature of the experiment and this results in a change in their behaviour

Real life example

1. A good way to think about this is when a teacher is observing one of your lessons, the behaviour of the students tends to change considerably as they know they are being watched

Question

Do you think it is a reasonable criticism that the confederates may have been unconvincing?

If we assume they were how could the issue be solved?

The issue of unconvincing confederates

E2 - There may also have been an issue with unconvincing confederates in Asch’s study.

•  It would have been difficult for them to act convincingly when giving wrong answers.
• Demand characteristics may therefore have led to participants changing the behaviour and the results may therefore not be valid. Mori and Arai however tested this by giving all participants polarized glasses so they saw different things.
• The results of the experiments were close to Asch’s results suggesting that the confederates did act convincingly and the results of Asch can therefore be considered valid. 

The magic number in terms of group size was

1. 10
2. 7
3. 2
4. 3

E3 - The issue of group size

• Asch says that three was a sufficient number for maximal influence but Bond points out that no studies other than Asch have used a majority greater than nine. We therefore we know very little about the effect of larger majority sizes on conformity levels.

Why might someone argue that Asch is a study of non-conformity rather than conformity?

E4 - Most did not conform

• Although the research has been recognised as ground breaking, all it shows is that the minority of the participants would conform, with only 33% average conformity rate the majority of the participants would not conform even with overwhelming majority influence. 
• This suggests that the study is more focused on non-conformity as most did not conform, this also highlights key validity issues that arise with this study.

Collectivist

Individualistic

Do you think both cultural types would conform equally?

Explain your answer

E5 - Cultural Differences

• There are also cultural differences. Asch used American students in his study so there is a lack of population validity. 
• Smith (06) found that in individualistic cultures typical conformity rates are about 25% whereas in collectivist cultures where conformity is more encouraged conformity rates are higher at 37%. 
• The type of societal norms therefore has a significant impact on conformity rates.

Ethical Issues

Informed Consent

Right to withdraw

Solutions

pps need to know all about the study and sign a consent form

pps must be able to withdraw from the study at any point and withhold their data

Ethical Issues

Deception

Confidentiality

Harm

Solutions

pps should not be deceived, if they are there should be a debrief and support provided

pps should not have their names exposed, so initials should be used to protect identity

protection from physical and psychological harm

Question

Explain the ethical issues within this study.

Confidentiality

Privacy

Right to Withdraw

 Informed Consent

 Deception 

Harm

Do you think the knowledge gained outweighed the ethical violations?

Yes

No

Fence sitters

Reliability

Validity

Irrelevannt

Consistency

Realistic

Exciting

Dependable

Reliability

•  In order to assess results and conclusions data must be replicable.

• Only if it is replicable can you see if the data is reliable (consistent)

Validity

• Internal
• Are you measuring what you think you are measuring?

• External
• Are the results generalisable
• Temporal - over time
• Population - to different groups
• Ecological - to different settings

If an experiment is reliable it is unlikely to be valid

Internal validity

External validity

Population Validity

Temporal Validity

Ecological Validity

Are results valid across time

Are results valid among all populations

Are the results valid in other settings

Did we measure what we set out to

can we generalise the results

Asch's study has

1. high reliability - high validity
2. high reliability - low validity
3. low reliability - high validity
4. low reliability - low validity

Asch - LAB STUDY

Strengths 

(objective, systematic, replicable)

High level of control

Manipulate the IV

Measure the effect on the DV

Establish Cause and Effect

Easy to Replicate

Establishes Reliability

Asch - LAB STUDY

Weaknesses

Low level of Validity

Tasks lack mundane realism so are low in Ecological Validity

Demand Characteristics affect the internal validity

Child of its time

Not much is known about group size

Population validity

Demand characteristics

Study of non conformity

Unconvincing confederates

There are significant cultural differences

most pople did not conform

it is assumed 3 is the magic number

may lack temporal validity

I don't understand

Child of its time

Demand characteristics and Mori and Arai

Population Validity

The issue of group size

Study of Non-Conformity

Outline the procedure used by Asch in his study of conformity and the findings of this study. (6 marks)

Procedure

• Asch tested 123 male US undergraduates, who were seated around a table with other ‘participants’ and shown three lines of different lengths. Their task was to say which of the three lines was the same length as a standard line. The participant always answered second to last, with the other ‘participants’ actually being confederates who were instructed to all give the same wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials.

3 for procedure

Outline the procedure used by Asch in his study of conformity and the findings of this study. (6 marks)

Findings 

• On the 12 ‘critical’ trials, participants conformed to the incorrect judgements given by the confederates approximately one-third of the time. There were individual differences inconformity rates, with one-quarter of the participants never conforming at all, and one in 20 conforming on all 12 critical trials. In a control condition, where participants made theirjudgements without the distraction of confederates giving wrong answers, they made mistakes only 1% of the time.

3 for findings

Explain the role of group size as a variable affecting conformity.

 (4 marks)

• Asch found there was very little conformity when the majority consisted of just one or two confederates. When the number of confederates increased to three, the proportion of conforming responses also increased, up to about 30%. Further increases in the size of the majority did not significantly increase this level of conformity. 

3 - steep rise to 3 and then the effect plateued out

Explain the role of unanimity as a variable affecting conformity.

 (4 marks)

• When the unanimity of the group was broken in Asch’s study, conformity levels decreased significantly. For example, if the participant was given the support of a confederate who gave the right answers throughout, conformity levels dropped from 33% to 5.5%. In another condition, where a confederate gave an answer that was a different wrong answer to the one given by the majority, conformity levels also decreased to 9%. Asch believed that it was breaking the group’s unanimous position that was the major factor in conformity reduction.

4

Explain the role of task difficulty as a variable affecting conformity. (4 marks)

• When Asch made the task more difficult by making the differences between the line lengths much smaller, the level of conformity increased. Asch believed that situational differences (task difficulty) and individual differences (self-efficacy) are both important in determining conformity

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