Asch Conformity Summary

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--Asch's experiment on conformity observes the influence a group can have on an individual and how an individual might deviate from the group's perceptions. The way the study was conducted allowed the correlation of the results to better reflect the fact that the correlation does, in this instance, imply causation, but the set up also limits the applicability of this information to larger populations. The experiment could also take some ethical criticism in its failure to provide complete information about the study to its participants.
Experiment Summary --Asch created a test that involved lines of different sizes. For this test participants were given a line that was a specific size and three choices a, b, and c each with a corresponding …show more content…

One could also consider some negative psychological effects of the experiments such as a perpetual self doubt as a result of having the subject's perspective on the answer to the line size questions conflict with the group's answers and putting the subject in a situation where they either have to choose to be put into an awkward social situation where they are forced to deviate from the groups norm's and deal with the consequences of social deviance, or choose to conform to the group's norms and have to cope with the personal conflict of siding with a conflicting answer that is different from what the subject knows to be true, to be unethical consequences of the …show more content…

In this quote Asch is applying the results of his study to the population and then discussing how these results could influence the way we perceive the interaction of public discussion within the realm of cultural and political ideals and views. To explain the information of the quote further Asch is developing the idea that if society begins to perceive agreement as a synonym to conformity to group norms then we will lose all intellectual discussion on topics of disagreeance. The reasoning for this is if we all automatically conform to the ideas of the group without discussion of why individuals should agree on topics we lose that form of intellectual conversation and another way to lose conversations of omniscient content is that if everyone conforms to the group's opinion then there will not be any opposing views to dispute. To provide my personal interpretation of how the results of this study could reflect to the culture and population I will say that conformity has its advantages. With this knowledge of group conformity and its presence in our culture we can use this in therapeutic