Solomon ASch: Prejudice and Discrimination

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In this article three experiments were repeated by Solomon Asch with subjects (N=7) who are asked to participate in an experiment in which they compare the length of lines. Based on the experiment, six of the subjects have been coached beforehand to give wrong answers. The seventh individual has been informed that the study is an experiment in perception. The subjects are provided with two alternatives. They could act independently, go along with the majority (or repudiate the evidence). According to Asch, of the 123 individuals participating in the experiment, a considerable percentage yield to the majority position (which was in error).

Briefly outline your ideas for research including: (1) the social psychology perspective(s) that the study you propose will employ, (2) the topic and focus of the study, (3) a brief description of the methodology you propose to use, and (4) a justification for why the other researcher should support your ideas.

Note: for this first bullet, I assume you are to choose a social psychology perspective utilized by Solomon Asch, which was the Social Cognitive Perspective. A methodology that you might want to employ is a conceptual framework such as that in the Grounded Theory approach. Grounded theory is opposite of scientific experiments (which Asch objected to); it is often used in qualitative studies, and is based on some existing theory for which you provide a model why something is in the world the way that it is; and explain some aspect of how that something works (e.g., in this case what contributes to discrimination). In other words, what is taking place with the phenomena that you want to understand? A researcher would want to support your data if the theory is well grounded, and supported by well-though out data and research. In other words, the theory is not just imposed on your study, but utilized to explain it.

Evaluate the original study's findings. In which condition are the findings valid? In which condition are the findings not valid? Explain why.

*Conditions under which the experiment was valid:

(a) Disturbances of the majority unanimous had an effect (i.e., when there was no majority)
(b) Under the pressure of a majority of three the subjects' errors jumped to 31.8% (As noted in those "not valid" one person did not have ...