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Solomon Eliot Asch Research Paper

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Solomon Eliot Asch
Parker Farley
PSY 200
Coach Ivey
April 6, 2015

Solomon Eliot Asch was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1907. He grew up early in his life in a small town in Poland called Lowicz. He was born and raised as his parents were into a Jewish family. In 1920, Solomon at the young age of just 13 years old and his family emigrated to the United States of America. They lived on the Lower East Side of New York City. The Lower East Side of New York was a place that was dense of many Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrants. When Solomon first moved to the United States he did not speak English fluently. Therefore, Solomon had a hard time adjusting to school, but he learned English by reading Charles Dickens. He went on to …show more content…

He later moved to teach at Swarthmore College, where he stayed and taught at for 19 years, from 1947-1966. At that time in the United States, Swarthmore College was a major center for scholars of Gestalt psychology. Other famous psychologists such as Wolfgang Kohler and Hans Wallach were faculty members at Swarthmore at the time as well. Once Solomon left Swarthmore in 1966 he went and founded the Institute for Cognitive Studies at Rutgers University. Solomon only stayed at Rutgers University for 6 years from 1966-1972. Solomon moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 1972. He taught at Rutgers University as a professor of psychology until 1979 when he …show more content…

Solomon would have a person come in off the streets not knowing the other 5 people were actors. The only non-actor would be seated 4th in row side by side. Solomon would have 4 lines in front of the room a little away from the table and ask which line matches the one on the far left. The actors would answer correctly for the first couple of times and the non-actor would agree. However, when the actors all say the wrong answer and it is the non-actors turn to answer he chose to answer along with the group. If the non-actor said the opposite and gave what he thought was the correct answer the entire group would stare at him in a way of saying, are you serious? Finally, the non-actor would start agreeing with the others even if he knows it is not the correct answer. The non-actors said afterwards that it did not matter if he was right or wrong so why cause problems in the group just by going against

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