asch (1955)
DESCRIPTION
Asch (1955). Procedure. Read the piece of paper I have given you. DON’T LET ANYONE ELSE SEE WHAT IT SAYS!!. Test run. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. A. B. C. What is conformity?. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Asch (1955)
Procedure
Read the piece of paper I have given you. DON’T LET ANYONE ELSE SEE WHAT IT SAYS!!
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Test run
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What is conformity?
A person is said to conform if they chose a course of action which is favoured by the majority of group members, or is considered socially acceptable.
In what way are the people on the next slide conforming?
Some key terms
Deviation: the opposite of conformity
Majority influence
Public compliance
Private acceptance
Jenness (1932)
Individually, guess how many beans are in this jar
As a group, come to an estimate
Do you want to change your original guess?
Jenness (1932) Asked people individually to estimate
how many beans the bottle contained Then put the group in a room with the
bottle, and asked them to provide a group estimate.
Subjects were asked individually if they would like to change their original estimates, or stay with the group's estimate.
Almost all changed their individual guesses to be closer to the group estimate.
Sherif (1935)
The Autokinetic effect
On the next slide is a light. The light will move and you have to say in which way it is moving.
Sherif (1935)
The autiokinetic effect is when a stationary spot of light appears to move due to small movements of the eye
Sherif told participants to estimate by how far the spot of light had moved. Asked individually Then exposed to the estimates of two other
participants Estimates tended to converge to a group norm
which was an average of these individuals’ estimates.
Issues with the previous research Sherif and Jenness both used ambiguous
situations to investigate conformity.
Little known about conformity in non-ambiguous situations
Read Asch’s quote. What research method terms can we use to sum up Asch’s criticisms?
Aims
Investigate the effects of group pressure on individuals in unambiguous situations.
When confronted with an obviously incorrect answer, would individuals would give an answer which perpetuated this error (conformed) or would they would give an independent response?
Procedures
Asch carried out a number of variations of the same experiment. You need to know in-depth procedures for the baseline study, and also some of the variations.
Use the textbook page 68-73, and the original text.
When in doubt, look to the original text!
The baseline study
8 minutes Complete the table for the baseline study
procedure Read and highlight the procedure
Findings for the baseline study In a control study carried out before this
experiment, it was found that less than 1% of people made errors when carrying out this task when by themselves. This suggests that this task is _____________.unambiguous
Findings from the baseline study On the critical trials,
36.8% of responses were wrong.
25% never gave a wrong answer
Others agreed on nearly every trial
Behaviour was constant
Those who did not conform…
Asch states “Those who strike out on the path to independence, do not, as a rule, succumb to the majority”. confidence in their own judgment capacity to recover from doubt felt it was “their obligation to call the play as they
saw it”
Those who did conform… Asch says “Those who chose the path of
compliance are unable to free themselves, and the ordeal is prolonged”. Believed that “I am wrong, they are right” conformed so as “not to spoil the results" suspected the majority were “sheep” thought the majority were “victim of an optical
illusion” thought they were ‘deficient’
The variations
In pairs, read through the original study, and write down the procedure and findings for the variations.
Conclusions
The results from both the baseline study and the variations suggest that there is a strong tendency to conform to group pressures, even in an unambiguous situation.
Conclusions
The pressure from the majority reduced when the majority was smaller.
Pressure to conform was also reduced by the presence of a dissenter, even if the dissenter was giving a wrong answer.
Therefore, conformity depends a lot upon the majority being unanimous. For example, when the dissenter started to agree with the majority, many participants began to conform.
Conclusions
Read the quote from Asch, and look back at the results. How does this study show how people are able to resist conformity?
Evaluate the methodology
Evaluate: Method Reliability Validity Sampling Ethical issues
Alternative evidence Do Sherif and Jenness
support, contradict, or develop Asch’s results?
Perrin and Spencer (1980) 1 person conformed out of
396 trials Higher pressure to conform in
the 1950s Perrin and Spencer used
science students
Alternative evidence
Nicholson et al (1985) 32% of British students and 38% of US students
conformed at least once. Provides some support.
Alternative Evidence
Eagly (1978) Women are more conforming than men in group
pressure situations. Can you think of a reason why this would be the case?
However, men and women have different short term goals. The result is that women appear to conform more than they would in the real world.
Alternative evidence
Bond and Smith (1996) Pg 77 (blue box) What did they do? What did they
find? What does it mean about Asch?
Berns et al (2005) Brain scan evidence
Boel et al (2006) Pg 77 (blue box) What did they do? What did they
find? What does it mean about Asch?