What was the key study and the year it was conducted?
Asch (1951)
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Who were the volunteers and how many were there?
123 US Male Undergraduates
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What did Asch tell volunteers the experiment was and what was it actually?
Volunteers were told it was a vision test however it was really a test of conformity.
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How many p's and how many confederates were in each trial?
1 p and 5 confederate
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What were p's asked to do?
Look at 3 lines of different lengths and state which line they thought was the same length as the "standard line".
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What happened in the critical trials?
Confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer.
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What were the critical trials investigating?
To see if people would cave into the pressures of the majority.
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How many critical trials were there?
12 (out of 18)
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What was the average conformity rate on the the critical trials?
33% (gave the wrong answer)
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How many p's did not conform on any of the trials?
25%
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What happened in the control trial?
No confederates gave the wrong answer to confirm the stimulus lines were unambiguous.
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How many people made mistakes in the control trial?
1%
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What type of conformity was shown in this experiment?
Compliance
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What is a weakness of Asch's experiment?
Lacks in Mundane realism. The task completed was not a realistic everyday situation. Conformity rates may not reflect realistic situations. Difficult to generalise to realistic settings.
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What is a weakness of Asch's experiment?
Lacks ecological validity. Artificial setting. Difficult to generalise to real life settings.
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What ethical issues were involved with this study?
P's were deceived into thinking it was a vision test, therefore they couldn't have given informed consent.
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What is a weakness of Asch's experiment?
Lacks population validity, research is biased towards males and ethnocentric (biased towards american culture), difficult to generalise to females and other cultures.
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What is a weakness of Asch's experiment?
Conformity levels may have been affected by the time and culture (1950's america). This is a weakness as it lacks historical validity.
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What is a strength of Asch's experiment?
Perrin and Spencer (1980) with youths on probation as p's and probation officers as confederates. Similar levels of conformity. Strength as it suggests that conformity is more likely when perceived costs of not performing are high.
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Who were the volunteers and how many were there?
Back
123 US Male Undergraduates
Card 3
Front
What did Asch tell volunteers the experiment was and what was it actually?
Back
Card 4
Front
How many p's and how many confederates were in each trial?
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