AQA GCSE Psychology Paper 2
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1. Asch's study Conformity
2. Asch's aim Asch (1955) set out to investigate how
people respond to group pressure.
3. Asch's Method 123 American male students. Each of
these naïve participants was tested with
a group of between 6-8 confederates.
Shown picture attached, and asked
which 2 lines matched. 18 trials and on 12
of them (the 'critical' trials) confederates
all answered the same wrong answer
4. Asch's results Participants conformed on 38.6% of trial
25% never conformed so 75% con-
formed at least once.
5. Asch's study Evaluation 1 May only be relevant to 1950s Ameri-
ca. Particularly conformist time as people
afraid to behave differently.
Another study by Perrin and Spencer
conducted in the UK found just 1 con-
forming response in 396 trials.
6. Asch's Study Evaluation 2 Artificial tasks - Doesn't reflect everyday
situations where people conform. The
group formed was not like a group of
friends.
Ungeneralisable.
7. Asch's Study Evaluation 3 Cultural Differences - It is more reflective
of individualist cultures like the US and
the UK.
, AQA GCSE Psychology Paper 2
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Results can't be generalised to collec-
tivist cultures where rates are higher
(Bond and Smith)
8. Social factors affecting confor- group size, task difficulty, anonymity
mity
9. Group size Asch increased the number of confeder-
ates and found it increased the number
of people who conformed
10. Group size evaluation group size has different effects depend-
ing on type of task. (In Asch's study the
answer was obvious but when consider-
ing musical preferences, it is not.)
11. Anonymity Asch altered his method so that par-
ticipants answered on a piece of paper
anonymously. Results showed less con-
formity.
12. Anonymity evaluation Asch's study involved a group of
strangers.
Effect of anonymity changes if group are
friends (Huang and LI)
13. Task difficulty Harder tasks make the answer less cer-
tain and so people feel less confident and
may look to others for the answer.
14. Task difficulty evaluation Does not apply as much to people with
greater expertise
15. Dispositional factors affecting Personality and expertise
conformity
16. locus of control internals believe they are in control
whereas externals believe it is a matter
of luck and other outside forces.
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17. Personality Burger and Cooper investigated effect of
locus of control.
Rating funniness of cartoons and a con-
federate said his ratings out loud. exter-
nals likely to conform.
18. Personality evaluation locus of control does not seem to have an
effect on conformity in familiar situations.
19. Expertise expertise increases confidence and
those with it are less likely to conform.
20. Expertise evaluation focusing on one single factor to explain
conformity is simplistic. Being an expert
is not sufficient, you may still conform due
to other factors.
21. Milgram's study Obedience
22. Milgram's aim Investigate whether a normal person
would give somebody an electric shock if
told to do so by an authority figure
23. Milgram's Method 40 male volunteers (told it was for a study
on memory)
confederate 'learner' asked questions
and when answered incorrectly, partici-
pant 'teacher' told to give them a shock
with an increasing voltage.
24. Milgram's Results all participants went up to 300V (12.5%
stopped at 300) and 65% went up
to 450V. Participants displayed sign of
stress such as: sweating, trembling, stut-
ter, biting lips etc.
25. Milgram's Conclusion Obedience related to social factors not
disposition, e.g. location, novel situation.
26. Milgram's evaluation 1
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Lacked realism - Perry found (by listening
to recordings of the study) that partici-
pants voiced suspicions on whether the
shocks were real or not.
(She concluded that the participants re-
alised that shocks were faked but contin-
ued as they didn't want to spoil the study)
27. Milgram's Evaluation 2 Supported by other research - In one lab
study, 100% of females delivered a fatal
shock to a puppy (Sheridan and King)
28. Milgram's Evaluation 3 Ethical issues - Participants experienced
distress
29. Milgrims agency theory (social Agency, Authority, Culture, Proximity
factors)
30. Agency Agentic state: Follow orders with no re-
sponsibility
Autonomous state: Own free choice.
31. Authority Agentic shift: moving from making own
choices to following orders, occurs when
someone is in authority.
32. Culture - social hierarchy Some people have more authority than
others.
Depends on society and socialisation.
33. Proximity Participants less obedient in Milgram's
study when in same room as learner,
increasing 'moral strain'
34. Agency theory evaluation 1 Blass and Schmitt showed students a clip
of Milgram's study, they blamed the ex-
perimenter rather than the participants.
35. Agency theory evaluation 2 Cannot explain why there is not a 100%
obedience in Milgram's study
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1. Asch's study Conformity
2. Asch's aim Asch (1955) set out to investigate how
people respond to group pressure.
3. Asch's Method 123 American male students. Each of
these naïve participants was tested with
a group of between 6-8 confederates.
Shown picture attached, and asked
which 2 lines matched. 18 trials and on 12
of them (the 'critical' trials) confederates
all answered the same wrong answer
4. Asch's results Participants conformed on 38.6% of trial
25% never conformed so 75% con-
formed at least once.
5. Asch's study Evaluation 1 May only be relevant to 1950s Ameri-
ca. Particularly conformist time as people
afraid to behave differently.
Another study by Perrin and Spencer
conducted in the UK found just 1 con-
forming response in 396 trials.
6. Asch's Study Evaluation 2 Artificial tasks - Doesn't reflect everyday
situations where people conform. The
group formed was not like a group of
friends.
Ungeneralisable.
7. Asch's Study Evaluation 3 Cultural Differences - It is more reflective
of individualist cultures like the US and
the UK.
, AQA GCSE Psychology Paper 2
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_b2p5vb
Results can't be generalised to collec-
tivist cultures where rates are higher
(Bond and Smith)
8. Social factors affecting confor- group size, task difficulty, anonymity
mity
9. Group size Asch increased the number of confeder-
ates and found it increased the number
of people who conformed
10. Group size evaluation group size has different effects depend-
ing on type of task. (In Asch's study the
answer was obvious but when consider-
ing musical preferences, it is not.)
11. Anonymity Asch altered his method so that par-
ticipants answered on a piece of paper
anonymously. Results showed less con-
formity.
12. Anonymity evaluation Asch's study involved a group of
strangers.
Effect of anonymity changes if group are
friends (Huang and LI)
13. Task difficulty Harder tasks make the answer less cer-
tain and so people feel less confident and
may look to others for the answer.
14. Task difficulty evaluation Does not apply as much to people with
greater expertise
15. Dispositional factors affecting Personality and expertise
conformity
16. locus of control internals believe they are in control
whereas externals believe it is a matter
of luck and other outside forces.
, AQA GCSE Psychology Paper 2
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_b2p5vb
17. Personality Burger and Cooper investigated effect of
locus of control.
Rating funniness of cartoons and a con-
federate said his ratings out loud. exter-
nals likely to conform.
18. Personality evaluation locus of control does not seem to have an
effect on conformity in familiar situations.
19. Expertise expertise increases confidence and
those with it are less likely to conform.
20. Expertise evaluation focusing on one single factor to explain
conformity is simplistic. Being an expert
is not sufficient, you may still conform due
to other factors.
21. Milgram's study Obedience
22. Milgram's aim Investigate whether a normal person
would give somebody an electric shock if
told to do so by an authority figure
23. Milgram's Method 40 male volunteers (told it was for a study
on memory)
confederate 'learner' asked questions
and when answered incorrectly, partici-
pant 'teacher' told to give them a shock
with an increasing voltage.
24. Milgram's Results all participants went up to 300V (12.5%
stopped at 300) and 65% went up
to 450V. Participants displayed sign of
stress such as: sweating, trembling, stut-
ter, biting lips etc.
25. Milgram's Conclusion Obedience related to social factors not
disposition, e.g. location, novel situation.
26. Milgram's evaluation 1
, AQA GCSE Psychology Paper 2
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_b2p5vb
Lacked realism - Perry found (by listening
to recordings of the study) that partici-
pants voiced suspicions on whether the
shocks were real or not.
(She concluded that the participants re-
alised that shocks were faked but contin-
ued as they didn't want to spoil the study)
27. Milgram's Evaluation 2 Supported by other research - In one lab
study, 100% of females delivered a fatal
shock to a puppy (Sheridan and King)
28. Milgram's Evaluation 3 Ethical issues - Participants experienced
distress
29. Milgrims agency theory (social Agency, Authority, Culture, Proximity
factors)
30. Agency Agentic state: Follow orders with no re-
sponsibility
Autonomous state: Own free choice.
31. Authority Agentic shift: moving from making own
choices to following orders, occurs when
someone is in authority.
32. Culture - social hierarchy Some people have more authority than
others.
Depends on society and socialisation.
33. Proximity Participants less obedient in Milgram's
study when in same room as learner,
increasing 'moral strain'
34. Agency theory evaluation 1 Blass and Schmitt showed students a clip
of Milgram's study, they blamed the ex-
perimenter rather than the participants.
35. Agency theory evaluation 2 Cannot explain why there is not a 100%
obedience in Milgram's study
