Evaluate research on conformity to group norms | ib psych notes

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Evaluate research on conformity to group norms. (22)

Evaluate (22) – An appraisal by weighing up the strengths and limitations.

Solomon Asch – Asch’s Paradigm Experiment (Conformity)
[A]	Investigate the existence of conformity.
[P]	Subject was placed into a room with 6 confederates and the experimenter. Subject was deceived that the 6 confederates were participants just like them. The subject was placed on the second last seat so they will be the second last to give an answer. The group of subject and confederates were asked to select the line on the second card that matched the line on the first card. There were 18 sets of cards in total, some of which had lines that were completely different in length, others are similar in length. Confederates were instructed to answer correctly on some of the cards but answer incorrectly for most.
[F]	75% conformed at least once to the wrong answer 32% conformed to more than half of the wrong answers 24% did not conform at all
[C]	Conformity happened Those who did not conform sparked further research
[E]	Ecological validity: Low, lab conditions. Controlled environment removed confounding variables. Meaningless stimuli. Gender bias, only male participants were used. Culture bias, only population of the US were used. Cannot be generalised to all population. Ethics: Deception, but subjects were debriefed.

Perrin and Spencer – Asch’s Paradigm with professionals (Conformity)
Experiment brief	Replication of the "Asch's Paradigm" study. Except the subjects used were all from professional fields. Maths, Chemistry, Medical and Engineering students.
[F]	Only 1 out of 396 trials did the subject conform to the big group.
[C]	Individuals with high self esteem and confidence are less likely to conform.
[E]	Offered an alternative view on the factors affecting conformity. Improved upon the theory of conformity and the original study (Asch's Paradigm) Evaluative points of Asch's Paradigm apply.

Moscovici and Lage – Shades of blue study (Conformity)
[A]	Investigate whether a minority group can influence a bigger group through conformity.
[P]	4 subjects were placed into a room with 2 confederates and the experimenter. Subjects were deceived that the 2 confederates were participants just like them. Subjects were asked to judge whether different shades of blue-green cards were blue or green. The 2 confederates were instructed to give the wrong answer consistently.
[F]	The minority of 2 confederates were able to influence 32% of the participants to give a wrong answer.
[C]	Uncovered an important element of conformity. Consistency of the group.
[E]	Offered an alternative view on the factors affecting conformity. Improved upon the theory of conformity and the original study (Asch’s Paradigm). Evaluative points of Asch's Paradigm apply.