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Solomon AschAmerican psychologist
Date of Birth: 14.09.1907
Country:  USA |
Content:
Early Life and Education
Solomon Asch, an eminent American psychologist, was born in Warsaw, Poland. In 1920, he emigrated to the United States, where he subsequently pursued his higher education. In 1928, he earned a bachelor's degree from the City College of New York, followed by master's and doctorate degrees from Columbia University under the guidance of Max Wertheimer, a founding figure in Gestalt psychology.
Academic Career
Asch spent a significant portion of his academic career at Swarthmore College alongside Wolfgang Köhler. In 1943, he succeeded Max Wertheimer as the head of the psychology department at the New School for Social Research. Asch's research interests extended to cognitive styles, in collaboration with H. Witkin.
Conformity Studies
Asch is renowned for his groundbreaking experiments on conformity. His most famous study, published in 1951 in Harold Guetzkow's "Groups, Leadership and Men," involved presenting three comparison lines to eight participants (one of which was clearly identical to a reference line). Unbeknownst to the study participants, seven of them were actually confederates instructed to give incorrect answers. Asch's findings revealed that 75% of the "naive participants" conformed to the confederates' erroneous responses at least once during the experiment, while 25% consistently followed the group's "delusion."
Influence and Legacy
Asch's contributions to psychology were profound. Among his notable students was Stanley Milgram, who earned his doctorate under Asch's supervision at Harvard University. Asch received several prestigious awards, including Guggenheim Fellowships in 1941 and 1943, the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 1967, and the William James Fellowship in 1989.
