Asch (1956)

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  • Created by: greggs25
  • Created on: 25-02-15 20:52
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  • Asch (1956)
  • Aim: to see how the real participants would react to the behaviour of the confederates. Asch was interested in whether people would stick to what they believed to be right, or cave in to the pressure of the majority and go along with its decision.
    • Asch (1956)
  • Procedure: in total, 123 male American undergraduates were tested. Asch showed a series of lines to the participants seated around a table. they were then asked to state, in turn, which of the three lines was the same length of the 'standard' line. participants always answered in the same order (with the real participant always answering second to or last). the confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer on 12 of the 18 trials.
    • on the 12 critical trials. 37% of the responses made by the true participants were incorrect because they had conformed to the wrong answers given by the confederates.
      • Asch conducted a control study to prove that the lines were unambiguous,in which he didn't use any confederates. he found that the participants hardly got the answer wrong. they only got the answers wrong about 1% of the time. this shows that there was high levels of conformity in the original study.
        • Evaluation Points
          • A small sample was used
          • high control.
          • the study was carried out in time where conformity was high
        • research was ethnocentric and androcentric.
          • Evaluation Points
            • A small sample was used
            • high control.
            • the study was carried out in time where conformity was high
        • university undergraduates were used.

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