evaluation asch

• 1 limitations of asch study


  p- the situation and the task are artificial

  e- participants knew they were in a research study (may have gone along)

  e- relatively trivial, no reason not to conform. according to Fiske, the groups really did not resemble groups in our everyday life.

  l- findings do not generalise to real-world situations
• 2 limitations of Asch study


  p- all participants were American men

  e- women may be more conforming - possibly because they are concerned about social relationships and being accepted

  e- similar conformity studies in collectivist cultures such as china, have found that conformity rates are higher

  l- this means that Asch's study tells us little about conformity in women and people from other cultures
• counterpoint for Asch's study


  p- however, Lucas et al's study found that conformity is more complex than asch suggested

  e- participants with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence

  l- this shows that an individual level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables. but asch did not research the roles of individual factors
• ethical issues with asch experiment

  p- one issue with Asch's experiment is it did not follow ethical guidelines

  e- knowledge on why people conform which may help avoid mindless destructive conformity

  e- the naive participants were deceived- they thought the confederates were genuine participants

  l- ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study
• strength - research support

  p- one strength is support from other studies for the effects f task difficulty

  e- Lucas et al asked their participants to solve 'easy' and 'hard' maths problems

  e- pps were given answers from three other students. the pps conformed more often when the questions were harder.

  l- this shows Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity
• counterpoint 2


  p- however, Lucas et al's study found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested

  e- pps with a higher confidence in maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence

  l- this shows that an individual-level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables. but Asch did not research the roles of individual factors.