Evals of Asch’s variations

• Support for task difficulty

  • Lucas asked students to give answers to math problems that were easy or more difficult. They found that students were more likely conform to the people around them when the questions were difficult rather than when they were easy ones.
  • This shows that conformity rates increased on a more difficult task demonstrating that task difficulty might be an important variable which affects conformity
  • Therefore, it affects conformity, increasing validity.
• Weakness: Artificial Task

  • The task of matching lines is not representative of real life situations involving pressure to conform (e.g., making a decision on a jury about the guilt or innocence of a defendant).
  • Asch's study may therefore only explain conformity in special circumstances that bear little similarity to real life.
  • Therefore, Asch's research lacks ecological validity and is unlikely to inform our understanding of conformity in everyday situations.
• Weakness: Lacks population validity

  • One problem with using an all-male sample is that there is evidence that women are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted than men Also the results may not apply to collectivist cultures.
  • Asch may have got vastly different conformity results if he used female participants. Additionally, Asch may have got increased levels of conformity in collectivist cultures.
  • Therefore, this doesn’t supports Asch's research into the variables that affect conformity thereby, decreasing its validity
• Weakness: Lacks temporal validity.

  • His studies were conducted during the 1950s, so his findings on conformity lack temporal validity. Asch's studies may not apply to modern day behaviour as society has evolved and social media has had a big impact on human behaviour. For example, people are more aware of not following the crown and as society has progressed, people may stick to their opinions and beliefs.
  • This means that if Asch's study was replicated today, we may see lower rates of conformity.
  • Therefore, his studies lack temporal validity as they may not reflect behaviour across time.