The Asch Conformity Study, 1951 Solomon Asch, a Polish-American social psychologist, was determined to see whether an individual would conform to a group's decision, even if the individual knew it was incorrect. CONFORMITY is defined by the American Psychological Association as the adjustment of a person's opinions or thoughts so that they fall closer in line with those of other people or the normative standards of a social group or situation. In his EXPERIMENT, Asch selected 50 male college students to participate in a "vision test.” Individuals would have to determine which line on a card was longer. However, the individuals at the center of the experiment did not know that the other people taking the test were actors following scripts, and at times selected the wrong answer on purpose. Asch found that, on average over 12 trials, nearly one-third of the naive participants conformed with the incorrect majority, and only 25 percent never conformed to the incorrect majority. In the control group that featured only the participants and no actors, less than one percent of participants ever chose the wrong answer. Asch's experiment showed that people will conform to groups to fit in (normative influence) because of the belief that the group was better informed than the individual. This explains why some people change behaviors or beliefs when in a new group or social setting, even when it goes against past behaviors or beliefs. What kind of research was it? Was it simply an observational kind of study, based on interview or survey data, or a true experiment. If you believe it was a true experiment, what were the independent and the dependent variables?
The Asch Conformity Study, 1951 Solomon Asch, a Polish-American social psychologist, was determined to see whether an individual would conform to a group's decision, even if the individual knew it was incorrect. CONFORMITY is defined by the American Psychological Association as the adjustment of a person's opinions or thoughts so that they fall closer in line with those of other people or the normative standards of a social group or situation. In his EXPERIMENT, Asch selected 50 male college students to participate in a "vision test.” Individuals would have to determine which line on a card was longer. However, the individuals at the center of the experiment did not know that the other people taking the test were actors following scripts, and at times selected the wrong answer on purpose. Asch found that, on average over 12 trials, nearly one-third of the naive participants conformed with the incorrect majority, and only 25 percent never conformed to the incorrect majority. In the control group that featured only the participants and no actors, less than one percent of participants ever chose the wrong answer. Asch's experiment showed that people will conform to groups to fit in (normative influence) because of the belief that the group was better informed than the individual. This explains why some people change behaviors or beliefs when in a new group or social setting, even when it goes against past behaviors or beliefs. What kind of research was it? Was it simply an observational kind of study, based on interview or survey data, or a true experiment. If you believe it was a true experiment, what were the independent and the dependent variables?
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