psychology project

1. Solomon Asch - Conformity
Experiment

2. Introduction
Imagine that you are in a math class and the instructor
asked the following question:
what is the correct answer of 1-0= ?
The first answer will come up to you mind is one. Right!!
But what if all your classmates answered 0 !!
Are you going to change your answer even if it is
obvious to you that their answer is not correct in order to
match the majority !

3. Conformity:
❖ It means changing your behaviour or opinion in order
to match with the majority of the group you belong to.
People get along with the group behaviours and
opinions to avoid being different and abnormal.

4. Solomon Eliot Asch
Solomon Eliot Asch is a polish psychologist. He is
majoring in social psychology. He has made several
studies in order to how social pressure affects the persons’
conformity.

5. ❖ Asch has made an experiment in order to study
conformity. The study called conformity experiment.
❖ The purpose of the study:
Analyzing how the social pressure affects the conformity
of a person.

6. ❖ Asch concurred with seven confederates that he will show to them two
cards. The right cards include three vertical lines and the left one
include only one line. And then he will asked them which one of the
right vertical lines has the same length with the one in the left. Asch
agreed with the seven participants about the responses that they should
answer. Asch chose eighth person to be his subject in this experiment.
Procedure of the experiment:
❖ The subject did not know
about this agreement and
he though that all the
confederates are real
participants.

7. Procedure of the experiment:
❖ The confederates were setting in organized and planned way that
allowed them to answer before the real participant (subject).
❖ Each student was asked to match the length of the line in the left
cards to same line in the right card.
❖ The confederates were given specific instructions on how to
respond to each trail.
❖ There were eighteen trails , the confederates answered some of
them correctly and the other incorrectly in order to influence the
subject.

8. The two major
motives in conformity
1.Normative influence:
The tendency to conform in order to
gain social acceptance
2.Informational influence:
The desire to obtain useful information
through conformity and achieve a correct
or appropriate result.

9. Factors Affecting Conformity
situational factors
1. Group size:
Asch found that group size influenced whether
subjects conformed. The bigger the majority group the
more people conformed

10. Factors Affecting Conformity
2. Difficulty of tasks:
When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for
confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the
conformity.

11. Factors Affecting Conformity
3. Answer in Private:
This is because there is less groups pressure and
normative influence is not as powerful, as there is no fear
of rejection from the group.

12. Factors Affecting Conformity
4. Lack of Group Unanimity:
The absence of group unanimity lowers overall
conformity as participant feel less need for social
approval of the group.

13. Results
Asch tested 123 different young men from three
different institutions of higher learning (Asch, 1955)
❖ Alone participants and no pressure group made
mistakes less than 1% .
❖ Group situation participants made errors 36.8%.
❖ 25% of the sample consistently defied majority opinion.

14. Results
❖ 75% of participants gave at least one incorrect answer
out of the 12 critical trials.
❖ Only 5% of participants were always agree by the
crowd.
❖ Group revealed that one-third of all responses were
incorrect.
❖ The incorrect responses often matched the incorrect
response of the majority group.

15. Suggestions after this experience:
❖ Always listen to yourself before listening to others, even
if you’re wrong, so you can learn from your mistakes.
❖ Be confident of your opinion, and stick to your
knowledge.
❖ Never compare your answers and opinions to others
when you know it’s right.

16. Suggestions
❖ Never trust people too much, no one is always right.
❖ Even if you’re the only one is having a different opinion
stick to it.

17. References
❖ Asch's Conformity Study. Retrieved April 26, 2016, from http://
www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Asch's_Conformity_Study
❖ Discuss factors influencing conformity. (2012). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from
https://iseibpsychology2012.wikispaces.com/Discuss factors influencing
conformity.
❖ Boundless (2016). Boundless Psychology. Retrieved from https://
www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/
social-psychology-20/social-influence-104/conformity-394-12929/

18. –Ghadah Alshubaily
–Maha Almogbel
–Raneem Aldowyan
–Hessah Alhamdan
–Waad Algalay
Done by: