Psychology Social Influence Exam With Accurate
Answers Latest Update
asch's goal
to see whether a majority could influence a minority even under unambiguous
conditions
asch procedure
- selected 123 male students from 3 different American colleges, believing they were
participating in a vision experiment
- each P seated in a room of 7-9 confederate classmates who had agreed ahead on their
answer
the Ps was always seated second from last, each person had to say out loud which line
A,B,C was most like the target line in length. the answer was always obvious
each P completed 18 trials and the confederates give the same wrong answer on 12
critical trials
asch wanted to see if the P would conform to the majority view even when the answer
was obviously wrong
asch results
participants conformed to the incorrect answers in 37% of the critical trials
74% of the participants conformed on at least one critical trial
25% of the participants never conformed
2/3 of the critical trials, the genuine participants gave the correct answer, this shows
that a lot of people are able to resist the influence of the majority
when they wrote the answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% due to their own judgement
,Asch conclusions
there is a powerful pressure to conform to group pressure in an unambiguous situation
a majority can exert influence on a minority in such an unambiguous situation where the
correct answer is obvious
individuals experienced NSI and conformed to avoid rejection, some experienced ISI
coz they doubted their own judgement
asch variations
Group size
unanimity
task difficulty
group size
1 confederate: fell to 3%
2 confederates: fell to 12.8%
3 confederates: fell to 32%
4 confederates: fel to 29%
suggests that a small minority isnt sufficient to exert an influence, however 3
confederates reaches its highest level
unanimity
one of the confederates gave the correct answer: 5%
none of the confederates gave the wrong answer: 9%
when there is a dissenting confederate that breaks the unanimous viewpoint, this
reduces conformity significantly
task difficulty
ash made the line judging task more difficult and thus the stimulus line and the
, comparison lines were more similar in length
which increased conformity rates, ISI -it has a role to play once a task becomes harder,
situation become more ambiguous and so we are more likely to look to other ppl for
guidance, so assume they are right and that we are wrong
asch evaluation -ve
Lacks population validity, androcentric, male American college students
Results specific to a single culture and time period given - child of its time,
McCarthyism, Terrin & Spencer, engineer students
Lacks mundane realism/demand characteristics significant, may wish to save face,
given special pressure
Deception, participants believe confederates are real participants
Asch evaluation +ve
Lab study higher level of variable control
Zimbardo
To examine how easily people would conform to the roles of guards and prisoners in a
mock prison life
zimbardo process
-sampled 21 Ps from 75 volunteers who answered newspaper advertisement run by
stanford university
-accepted those who were interviewed and perceived to be the most mentally stable
-Ps were randomly assigned the role of either guards or prisoner
-prisoners were arrested in their homes by the local police and were delivered to the
prison
they were blindfolded, strip searched and deloused and issued a uniform and a number
the guards, to underline their role, had their own uniform complete with a wooden club,
handcuffs keys and mirror shades
Answers Latest Update
asch's goal
to see whether a majority could influence a minority even under unambiguous
conditions
asch procedure
- selected 123 male students from 3 different American colleges, believing they were
participating in a vision experiment
- each P seated in a room of 7-9 confederate classmates who had agreed ahead on their
answer
the Ps was always seated second from last, each person had to say out loud which line
A,B,C was most like the target line in length. the answer was always obvious
each P completed 18 trials and the confederates give the same wrong answer on 12
critical trials
asch wanted to see if the P would conform to the majority view even when the answer
was obviously wrong
asch results
participants conformed to the incorrect answers in 37% of the critical trials
74% of the participants conformed on at least one critical trial
25% of the participants never conformed
2/3 of the critical trials, the genuine participants gave the correct answer, this shows
that a lot of people are able to resist the influence of the majority
when they wrote the answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% due to their own judgement
,Asch conclusions
there is a powerful pressure to conform to group pressure in an unambiguous situation
a majority can exert influence on a minority in such an unambiguous situation where the
correct answer is obvious
individuals experienced NSI and conformed to avoid rejection, some experienced ISI
coz they doubted their own judgement
asch variations
Group size
unanimity
task difficulty
group size
1 confederate: fell to 3%
2 confederates: fell to 12.8%
3 confederates: fell to 32%
4 confederates: fel to 29%
suggests that a small minority isnt sufficient to exert an influence, however 3
confederates reaches its highest level
unanimity
one of the confederates gave the correct answer: 5%
none of the confederates gave the wrong answer: 9%
when there is a dissenting confederate that breaks the unanimous viewpoint, this
reduces conformity significantly
task difficulty
ash made the line judging task more difficult and thus the stimulus line and the
, comparison lines were more similar in length
which increased conformity rates, ISI -it has a role to play once a task becomes harder,
situation become more ambiguous and so we are more likely to look to other ppl for
guidance, so assume they are right and that we are wrong
asch evaluation -ve
Lacks population validity, androcentric, male American college students
Results specific to a single culture and time period given - child of its time,
McCarthyism, Terrin & Spencer, engineer students
Lacks mundane realism/demand characteristics significant, may wish to save face,
given special pressure
Deception, participants believe confederates are real participants
Asch evaluation +ve
Lab study higher level of variable control
Zimbardo
To examine how easily people would conform to the roles of guards and prisoners in a
mock prison life
zimbardo process
-sampled 21 Ps from 75 volunteers who answered newspaper advertisement run by
stanford university
-accepted those who were interviewed and perceived to be the most mentally stable
-Ps were randomly assigned the role of either guards or prisoner
-prisoners were arrested in their homes by the local police and were delivered to the
prison
they were blindfolded, strip searched and deloused and issued a uniform and a number
the guards, to underline their role, had their own uniform complete with a wooden club,
handcuffs keys and mirror shades
