Conformity is changing your behaviour or opinions to match those of a group. Conformity to majority influence means going along with what most of the group does.

What is the difference between a social factor and a dispositional factor?

A social factor is part of the situation, such as the size of the group. A dispositional factor is part of the person, such as their personality.

What was the aim of Asch's study of conformity?

Asch aimed to find out whether people would conform to a majority giving an obviously wrong answer. The task was an unambiguous line-judging task.

What did Asch's control group show?

A control group judged the lines alone and made mistakes on fewer than 1% of trials. The task was therefore easy, so errors in the main study were caused by the group.

On the critical trials, how often did Asch's participants give the wrong majority answer?

Participants gave the wrong majority answer on about 37% of the critical trials.

AQA GCSE Psychology 8182

Memory

Topic overview Processes and types of memory The multi-store model of memory Primacy, recency and Murdock's serial position curve Reconstructive memory, Bartlett and factors affecting accuracy

Perception

Topic overview Sensation, perception and depth cues Gibson's direct theory of perception Visual illusions Gregory's constructivist theory of perception Perceptual set and factors affecting perception

Development

Topic overview Early brain development, nature and nurture Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development Piaget in education, naughty teddy and policeman doll studies Dweck's mindset theory, learning styles and Willingham

Research Methods

Topic overview Hypotheses and variables Sampling methods Experimental designs and types of experiment Interviews, questionnaires, case studies and observations Research procedures, reliability and validity Ethical issues in psychological research Types of data, calculations and averages Correlation, graphs and the normal distribution

Social Influence

Topic overview Conformity and Asch's study Obedience, agency theory and the authoritarian personality Bystander intervention and Piliavin's subway study Crowd and collective behaviour

Language, Thought and Communication

Topic overview Language, thought and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis Animal communication and von Frisch's bee study Non-verbal communication Explaining non-verbal behaviour: Darwin and Yuki

Brain and Neuropsychology

Topic overview The nervous system, fight or flight and the James-Lange theory Neurons, synaptic transmission and Hebb's theory Brain structure, localisation and Penfield's study Brain scanning, Tulving's gold memory study and brain damage

Psychological Problems

Topic overview An introduction to mental health Effects of mental health problems Clinical depression Explaining and treating depression Addiction Treating addiction

Social Influence

Conformity and Asch's study

3 things to know
Paper 2

Overview

Conformity, Asch's line judgement study and its findings, and how majority size, anonymity, task difficulty, personality and expertise affect conforming.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Process

Describe the procedure of Asch's line study.

Key term

Why does a more difficult task increase conformity?

Key term

What is conformity?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is conformity?
Model answer
Conformity is changing your behaviour or opinions to match those of a group. Conformity to majority influence means going along with what most of the group does.
2
What is the difference between a social factor and a dispositional factor?
Model answer
A social factor is part of the situation, such as the size of the group. A dispositional factor is part of the person, such as their personality.
3
What was the aim of Asch's study of conformity?
Model answer
Asch aimed to find out whether people would conform to a majority giving an obviously wrong answer. The task was an unambiguous line-judging task.
4
Describe the procedure of Asch's line study.
Model answer
A naive participant sat with a group of confederates and said aloud which of three lines matched a standard line. The confederates all gave the same wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials. The real participant answered last or next to last.
5
What did Asch's control group show?
Model answer
A control group judged the lines alone and made mistakes on fewer than 1% of trials. The task was therefore easy, so errors in the main study were caused by the group.
6
On the critical trials, how often did Asch's participants give the wrong majority answer?
Model answer
Participants gave the wrong majority answer on about 37% of the critical trials.

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