This document lists all the key research (and the researchers) along with evaluations of each according to AQA specifications for the Social Influence topic. It is a summary and simplification of psychological research with key figures and names to remember to enhance your ability to reach top-leve...
Asch’s “Line experiment” (1951)
Aim: To investigate conformity to a majority.
Procedure: Lab experiment.
➢ 123 male American participants.
➢ 5-8 confederates with 1 naive participant.
➢ Each was asked to point out the matching line.
➢ 12 critical trials of 18.
Findings: Conformity occurred in 37% of the trials.
3 confederates led to the most conformity.
Conclusion: Conformity to a majority is likely even with an unambiguous task.
– Low population validity as it only used male Americans.
– Artificial task; lowered external validity.
– Ethical issue of deception by making participants think it was an eye test.
– Lacks historical validity as it was performed in a conformist time in America.
Asch’s variations -
Presence of a non-conforming confederate: Conformity decreased.
Increasing confederate size: Conformity increased.
Making the task more ambiguous: Conformity increased.
Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment” (1973)
Aim: To investigate conformity to a social role.
Procedure: Lab experiment.
➢ 24 male American university students.
➢ Randomly assigned to “guard” and “prisoner” roles.
➢ Made as realistic as possible with “prisoners” being “arrested” and “guards” receiving their
shift timetable. Zimbardo himself played “superintendent”.
➢ Guards wore reflective sunglasses to lessen their ability to connect with the prisoners, and the
prisoners wore identical uniforms and hair covers to enhance deindividuation.
Findings: All participants conformed to their roles.
Conclusion: Supported his situational hypothesis that the environment makes people behave this
way rather than dispositional factors of personality.
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