Applications Exercises Research in Psych, 5E: Study Guide, Chapter 2 2-2

Applications Exercises Research in Psych, 5e: Study Guide, Chapter 2 2-1

3.1. What’s Next Thinking

What follows is a description of one of social psychology’s most famous experiments, ranking right up there with Milgram’s obedience studies. Read it carefully, and then place yourself in the role of a researcher planning the next study. That is, given the results of the study as described, what variations in procedure might you make in order to learn more about the phenomenon in question? Think of it as a two-step process. First, think of a possible explanation for the results. Second, think of some variation in procedure that could assess your explanation. For example, one possible explanation for the outcome of the Milgram obedience study was that the authority figure was perceived as an expert (after all, the study was done at Yale and they ought to know what they are doing, right?). To evaluate this explanation, a next study could change the perception of the authority figure, perhaps by running the study in a non-university location. Milgram in fact did this and the obedience levels indeed declined.

The Asch conformity study. In the 1950s Solomon Asch completed a series of studies showing that under the right circumstances, people were remarkably willing to conform to the opinions and judgments of others. They were even willing to deny the evidence of their own eyes if that evidence was in conflict with a group decision. In the basic conformity study, Asch’s method was as follows: The study appeared to be a perception problem in which participants examined a card with three vertical lines on it. The lines varied in length. The task was to look at a second card with a single vertical line and judge which of the three lines on the first card matched it in length. It was an extremely easy task – the three lines on the first card varied by quite a bit and when people were tested one at a time, they hardly ever made any errors (<1%). Asch tested male college students in groups of 6-8, but only one of the persons was a true participant. The others appeared to be students but were actually part of the experiment (usually referred to as experimental “confederates”). The real participant was seated in the next to last position around a table. On a given trial, one person at a time would make his judgment, with the real participant being the next to last to make his choice. On certain trials, the confederates were cued to deliberately choose the wrong line (and all confederates chose the same wrong line). Faced with the evidence of their own eyes and the conflicting responses of a unanimous group, participants went along with the group and gave what they must have known to be the wrong response about 37% of the time, a huge difference in performance compared to when students were tested without a group present.

What could be a reason for this conforming behavior?

How might you vary the procedure to see if your proposed reason has could indeed influence conformity?

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3.2. PsycINFO Search

This exercise requires that you have access to PsycINFO, probably through your library’s website. However you gain access to it, practice some of the search tips in Chapter 3 of the textbook, and then complete the following exercise:

1. Pick any three research studies that are referenced in Chapter 3; use your text’s Reference section (pp. --) to find the complete citation. Once you’ve found the studies, print out the records from PsycINFO.

2. For each of the three studies that you have found, find (and print records for) (a) two other studies by the first author and (b) two other studies that deal with the same topic.

3. Find PsycINFO listings for research by any three professors in the psychology department at your school. Use PsycINFO’s Index to start the search.

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Answers

1. Here are some possible variations on the Asch study, but I’m sure you can think of more. - Make the perceptual task more difficult – conformity should increase - Have one of the confederates break with the majority – conformity should decrease

2. PsycINFO search. You should not have difficulty finding these articles.