Solomon Asch, Pioneer Of Social Psychology
Solomon Asch is considered one of the pioneers of social psychology, a field in which he focused his research. This Polish psychologist emigrated to the United States at the age of a few years and it was in this country that he completed his school and university studies.
He was born in Warsaw (Poland) in 1907. At the age of 13, his family moved to New York. It was there that Solomon Asch completed his studies and obtained his doctorate in psychology in 1932. Over time, he became known for his original experiments in social psychology. In short, for having demonstrated the influence that others can have on our behavior.
While studying at Columbia University, Solomon Asch was advised by Max Wertheimer. This expert in Gestalt psychology had a profound impact on his training. In particular, it aroused great interest in the phenomena of perception, thought and association.
The intellectual development of Solomon Asch
Solomon Asch worked as a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College for 19 years. This step allowed him to establish a strong relationship with Wolfgang Kohler, whom he has always admired. His theories sparked his research interest and served as the basis for the experiments that made him famous.
Asch gained enormous fame for such experiments and for the publication of his book, Social Psychology , in 1952. There he captures the development of his research and the key concepts of his theory.
At the time, he revolutionized studies of the human mind. He also worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania. He also made a brief stay at Harvard University, where he supervised the doctoral thesis of the very famous and controversial Stanley Milgram.
Asch’s experiment
Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments known as the Asch experiment. This is a series of studies he conducted in 1951, the main purpose of which was to prove that people bow to the power of the group by adopting an attitude of conformity towards it.
The experiment essentially consisted of forming a group of 7 to 9 pupils. All but one were accomplices of the investigator. They were presented with two lines and asked to choose the one that was the longest for them. The correct answer was very obvious, but the accomplices began to say that the wrong choice was correct. This made the subject being assessed (“not an accomplice”) feel strong pressure from the group to respond against what their logic was telling them.
Solomon Asch showed that a good number of experimental subjects ended up adding to the majority’s answer, despite the fact that it was clearly wrong. Further, Asch really wondered if the subjects who followed the “rigged” general trial did so because they were convinced of the answer they gave. It was found that no: the number of people who pleaded guilty at the majority trial decreased considerably when they were allowed to express their decision in private. Thus, the influence was manifested above all on the conscience and not so much on the judgment.
Other aspects of the Asch experience
To complete the central study, Solomon Asch introduced some variations. The first change was to introduce a topic (also agreed or rigged) that would break the majority consensus. Asch found that the fact that one person had previously broken the consensus significantly reduced the number of experimental subjects who bowed or complied with the majority’s mistaken opinion.
Asch’s experiences, while criticized, provided a different and original view of how we can be influenced and conditioned by the majority. In fact, he is now considered one of the most important psychologists in history. Among his many awards, he notably received the Distinguished Award for Scientific Contributions from the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1967.
Our thoughts Social psychology and sociology study the same thing, but from different points of view. Discover their similarities and differences!
