Evaluation for Variables Affecting Conformity (A03)
- Created by: chloeskellern
- Created on: 01-10-16 15:22
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- Evaluation for Variables Affecting Conformity (A03)
- Is the Asch study a 'child of it's time'?
- Joseph McCathy
- Who is he and what did he do?
- Republican US senator from Wisconsin
- Led the anti-communist crusade known as the second red scare
- During a speech, he produced a piece of paper of "known communists" working for the government
- Communist - Someone who wants equality
- People were scared to go against the majority so more people were more likely to conform
- Many would agree as cultural changes have taken place since Joseph McCarthy
- Who is he and what did he do?
- Perrin and Spencer
- Carried out an exact replication of the original Asch experiment
- They found no evidence of conformity
- Results: conformity on 1/396 trials
- High ethnocentricity (conducted on British people rather than other ethnicities)
- Carried out an exact replication of the original Asch experiment
- Joseph McCathy
- Cultural differences in conformity
- Different results dependent on the culture the study takes place in
- Smith et al
- Analysed the results of Asch style experiments in a number of different cultures
- Average conformity rate across the different cultures was 31.2%
- Conformity for Individualist (Europe and US) cultures was 25%
- Conformity for Collectivist (Africa, Asia and South America) cultures was 37%
- Analysed the results of Asch style experiments in a number of different cultures
- Markus Kitayama
- Argue that there would be higher conformity in Collective cultures as they have a better connected community
- Unconvincing Confederates
- A problem for confederates in Asch's experiment was that they would've found it difficult to act convincingly when giving the wrong answer
- Mori and Arai
- Overcame confederate problem by making participants wear special polarising filtered glasses
- 3 participants in each group wore identical glasses and a 4th wore the special glasses
- Each participant viewed the same stimuli but only one saw them differently
- Female participants showed similar results to the original experiment whereas men didn't. This suggests that the confederates in the original study had acted convincingly
- Overcame confederate problem by making participants wear special polarising filtered glasses
- Problems with determining the effect of group size
- Bond
- A limitation of research in conformity is that studies only have a limited range of resuklts
- Bond points out that no studies other than Asch have used the majority size greater than 9
- We know little on the effect of larger majority sizes on conformity levels
- Investigators were quick to accept Asch's finding of 3 being the magic number for numbers of conformity to the majority
- Bond
- Independent behaviour rather than conformity
- Only about one-third of trials where the majority unanimously (in agreement) gave the wrong answer in Asch's experiment
- Two-thirds of the trials in Asch's experiment stuck to their instincts
- Asch's experiment showed that people's independent behaviour
- Is the Asch study a 'child of it's time'?
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