Many studies on social pressure were carried out because of WW2. Psychologists were keen to prevent events like the holocaust happen again. They felt these events happened because people bowed to social preassure to 'fit in with crowd' -McCarthyism
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Previous research to Asch 1936
Sherif (1936) involved pps judging how far a light moved in the dark (autokinetic effect). A few days later they got into small groups to decide how far it moved. Findings were that 4pps reached a common estimate on how far it moved.
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Previous other research.
Jenness' (estimating beans in jar) also involved looking at conformity in ambiguous situations where the answer was not obvious. Asch thought it was a problem so wanted to devise an unambiguous situation to see if people would still look to others.
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Asch aims?
1) Find out if people tend to conform to or agree with the view of the majority and bow to group pressure. 2) To investigate this in an unambiguous situation where right/wrong answers are clear.
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Procedures. What was asch's research method?
An observation carried out under controlled conditions.
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Asch's sample (procedures)
123 naieve pps collected by volanteer sampling. All male from 3 USA colleges.
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Asch's research involved (1)
Placing 1 true pp into a group of 7-9 confederates.
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Asch's research involved (2)
Seating them second to last in the row so they can hear the answers of the confederates.
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Asch's research involved (3)
Showing the pps a series of lines - a standard line and 3 seperate lines (all with a difference of between 3/4 of an inch and 1inch 3/4.
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Asch's research involved (4)
Asking pps to match the standard line to one of the 3 other lines where the answer was always obvious, aloud in front of others.
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Asch's research involved (5) trials.
18 trials for each group, 12 critical trials, where all the confederates called out the unanimous wrong answer.
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Asch's variations?
1) Varied group size from 1-15. 2) Allowed one confederate to always answer truthfully. 3) A pp who gave wrong, but different answers to other confederates.
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What did asch also do?
Interviewed pps to see why they'd conformed.
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How did asch address ethical issues?
By debriefing his pps and explaining true purpose of the research.
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Previous research to Asch 1936
Back
Sherif (1936) involved pps judging how far a light moved in the dark (autokinetic effect). A few days later they got into small groups to decide how far it moved. Findings were that 4pps reached a common estimate on how far it moved.
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