Notes
Asch’s Resech
Starter:
Conformity: Changing behaviour/opinion due to group pressure
Compliance: Go along with others publicly; privately disagree (temporary)
Internalisation: Private and public change (permanent)
Asch Experiment (1956):
Showed participants two large white cards at a time, on card was a ‘standard’ line and on the other card
there was three comparison lines, 1 out of 3 lines were the same length as the standard and the other two
were dif ferent, participant was asked which line matched the standard
The participants were 123 american male undergraduates
: Each naive* participant was tested individually with a group of 6-8 confederates* - the naive participant
was not aware the others were confederates
One of the first few trials the confederates gave the right answers but started making errors
All confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer
: Each participant took part in 18 trials and on 12 ‘critical trials’ the confederates gave the wrong answer
The findings were that the naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time
:Overall 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, which means 75% conformed at least once
When interviewed after most said they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence)
: Naive participant = real participant who knows nothing about the study
Confederates = pretends to be a real participant; actually part of experiment
: Variables af fecting conformity:
Group size
Unanimity of majority
: Task dif ficulty (leads to informative social influence)
Asch’s Resech
Starter:
Conformity: Changing behaviour/opinion due to group pressure
Compliance: Go along with others publicly; privately disagree (temporary)
Internalisation: Private and public change (permanent)
Asch Experiment (1956):
Showed participants two large white cards at a time, on card was a ‘standard’ line and on the other card
there was three comparison lines, 1 out of 3 lines were the same length as the standard and the other two
were dif ferent, participant was asked which line matched the standard
The participants were 123 american male undergraduates
: Each naive* participant was tested individually with a group of 6-8 confederates* - the naive participant
was not aware the others were confederates
One of the first few trials the confederates gave the right answers but started making errors
All confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer
: Each participant took part in 18 trials and on 12 ‘critical trials’ the confederates gave the wrong answer
The findings were that the naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time
:Overall 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, which means 75% conformed at least once
When interviewed after most said they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence)
: Naive participant = real participant who knows nothing about the study
Confederates = pretends to be a real participant; actually part of experiment
: Variables af fecting conformity:
Group size
Unanimity of majority
: Task dif ficulty (leads to informative social influence)
