AO3

• LIMITATION = Limited application of findings

  • P: Another limitation of Asch’s research is that his findings do not generalise widely to explain conformity in different groups of people.
  • E: For example, he used male undergraduates from the US in his study. In addition, Asch does not support collectivist cultures.
• LIMITATION = Limited application of findings (2)

  • E: This is a problem because the results are not representative to the rest of the population because women are probably more conformist than men as they rely more on friends’ opinions. Also, conformity rates are higher in the US because they are of an individualist culture i.e. where people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group.
  • L: Therefore, Asch’s findings cannot be generalised to the whole population and his study is low in representativeness.
• LIMITATION = Low ecological validity and mundane realism 

  • P: One limitation of Asch’s research is that it has been criticised for lacking external validity.
  • E: For example, he conducted his research in a laboratory setting.
• LIMITATION = Low ecological validity and mundane realism (2)

  • E: This is a problem because the experiment’s results cannot be applied to real-life settings, so there is unnatural behaviour that can occur. This also means that there may be demand characteristics due to the fact that the participant(s) could be aware of the aim of the study and try to alter their behaviour to successfully achieve what they think the researchers want to find.
  • L: As such, Asch’s findings should not be generalised beyond the laboratory setting and used to explain conformity in the real world.