How Did Solomon Asch Contribute To Psychology

Solomon Asch was a consequential pioneer in psychology. In fact, he was deemed to be in the top 50 most influential psychologists in history. He contributed immensely to the study of social psychology. Through a multitude of experiments, Asch added to the significance of the normative social influence, conformity, and the informational social influence in making decisions in a social setting. Solomon Asch was born in a small city named Warsaw in Łowicz, Poland on September 14, 1907 to a Jewish family. He and his family immigrated to the United States in 1920 at the age of 13 and lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He was enrolled in the very selective Townsend Harris High School. Then he attended The City College of New York for undergraduate school where he studied literature and science in 1928, and Columbia University, where he studied anthropology and earned a

At the time, he was interested in studying the impact of propaganda and indoctrination of Hitler and the Nazi party at the height of its power. He searched to understand the significance of conformity and how it compelled humans to act in ways significantly different if not influenced by the majority’s beliefs. He was also taught at Swarthmore College for 19 years where he worked with renowned Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Köhler, and at the Institute for Cognitive Studies at Rutgers University where he was the director of the psychology department and a distinguished professor. At these universities Asch performed a plethora of psychological experiments that tested conformity and the social pressures of fitting into a group. These experiments tested the effects of group pressure upon the modification, opinions and social pressure, independence, and a minority of one against and unanimous majority. His most significant and famous conformity experiment took place in the