Asch's line task, outline and evaluate
- Created by: ashbrook.niamh
- Created on: 29-02-20 12:50
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- Ashc's study into conformity- line task
- 123 American male under-graduates
- completed a matched pairs task, 1 naive participant, 6 confederates
- confederates were told to give the wrong answers on 12/18 trials
- had to state the correct comparison line, answers were unambiguous
- completed a matched pairs task, 1 naive participant, 6 confederates
- findings
- conformity occured 37% of the time
- 75% of participants conformed at least once
- 25% didn't conform at all
- p's were interviewed and said they conformed out of fear of rejection
- variations
- 1. group size
- a small majority is not sufficient enough for influence to be exerted.
- likewise, there is no need for a bigger majority
- Normative social influence
- 2. unanimity
- breaking the unanimity and adding social support will decrease conformity
- the influence of the majority depends to some extent of the group being unanimous
- normative social influence
- the influence of the majority depends to some extent of the group being unanimous
- breaking the unanimity and adding social support will decrease conformity
- 3. task difficulty
- By making the stimulus and comparison lines more similar, conformity would increase
- situation is more ambiguous so we are more likely to look to others for guidance
- informational social influence
- situation is more ambiguous so we are more likely to look to others for guidance
- By making the stimulus and comparison lines more similar, conformity would increase
- 1. group size
- evaluation
- Ethnocentric
- study only completed on Americans
- difficult to generalise results to other cultures
- ignorant of cultures establishing social norms
- individual differences
- some people may be more conformist than others, e.g students in Perrin and Spencer's study
- e.g people with an internal locus of control.
- Asch hasn't developed an explanation for conformity in different people
- some people may be more conformist than others, e.g students in Perrin and Spencer's study
- lab experiments
- Asch controlled for extraneous variables in his study
- high in reliability
- created an artificial situation, lacks ecological validity, can't be applied to natural situations
- Asch controlled for extraneous variables in his study
- Androcentric
- Asch only experimented on men
- difficult to generalise results to women, who may act differently in this situation e.g conform more
- Asch only experimented on men
- Ethnocentric
- 123 American male under-graduates
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