asch eval

• strength of asch's study to do with research support to support his findings

  lucas et al (2006) asked participants to solve 'easy' and 'hard' maths problems.

  were given answers that (falsely) claimed to be from 3 other students.

  participants conformed more often with the wrong answers when the problem was harder

  this shows that asch was correct that task difficulty is one variable affecting conformity.
• limitation of asch's study to do with it's application

  findings have little application

  androcentric research

  Neto (1955) suggested women may be more conformist bc theyre concerned about social relationships and being accepted. US is an individualist cultue and studies in collectvist cultures like China have found higher conformity rates (Bond and Smith 1996)

  This means Asch's findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from other cultures
• limitation of asch's study to do with the situation and task

  the situation and task were artificial

  participants knew they were in a research study (demand characteristics). the task was trivial and there was no reason not to conform.

  fiske (2014) said the groups were not like real life groups

  findings do not generalise to everyday life