PSY1101 Introduction to Psychology Assessment

Question 1. Solomon Asch

Solomon Asch (1907-1996) was a Polish-American psychologist who is best known for his work on social conformity and his famous conformity experiment conducted in the 1950s.

Asch's research on social conformity and his famous conformity experiment demonstrated the influence of group pressure on people's decisions, with implications for online platforms like Facebook. A study on online moral conformity shows that people's moral decisions can still be influenced by others in digital environments. Asch's conformity experiment involved comparing line lengths, with 70% of participants giving at least one incorrect answer due to social influence.

Villota and Yoo completed the Asch experiment to demonstrate how social influence can change user behavior on Facebook. They found that the type of social influence known as "conformity" is present on online platforms and can cause changes in people's behavior. This experiment resulted in a 50% conformity rate for the real experiment subjects. The experiment demonstrated that social influence of conformity still occurs on online platforms such as Facebook, and the results were consistent with Asch's original experiments carried out decades ago.

This study by Paruzel-Czachura, Wojciechowska, and Bostyn (2022) used the Asch conformity paradigm to study the impact of others on people's moral decisions in online environments. Participants were asked to answer moral dilemmas on video while sitting with strangers who were told how to answer. The study found that participants were influenced by the strangers' answers in half of the moral dilemmas. This suggests that people's moral decisions can be influenced by others even in online environments, with implications for individual decision-making in digital contexts.

In conclusion, Solomon Asch's research on social conformity is still relevant today, and has significant implications for understanding human behavior both online and offline. The studies conducted by Villota and Yoo, as well as Paruzel-Czachura, Wojciechowska and Bostyn, have demonstrated that conformity is still prevalent in digital spaces and can impact people's choices and actions.

The spread of false information on social media platforms is a personal example of how social conformity affects people's decisions and actions online. Individuals may conform to the beliefs of their online social groups without critically evaluating the information presented, as seen in a case where a hacked Facebook profile led to family members disowning the profile owner based on a false message from the hacker. It is important to be aware of the influence of social conformity and to make independent decisions based on factual evidence and critical thinking, especially in the digital age where information spreads rapidly and can be easily manipulated.

References

Solomon Asch. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. Retrieved March 13, 2023, fromhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Stanley-Milgram#ref1274185

Villota, E. J., & Yoo, S. G. (2018, April). An experiment of influences of Facebook posts in other users. In 2018 International conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment (ICEDEG) (pp. 83-88). IEEE. Retrieved March 13, 2023

Paruzel-Czachura, M., Wojciechowska, D., & Bostyn, D. H. (2022). Online Moral Conformity: How Powerful Is a Group of Online Strangers When Influencing an Individual’s Moral Judgments?. Retrieved March 13, 2023

Questions. 2 -  Melanie Klein

Klein's interpretation of depression as a pathological outcome of the depressive position, and Bibring's concept of depression as a conflict of the ego and a state of helplessness connected to the loss of self-esteem