A03

• * high levels of reliability?

  • lab experiment - used standardised procedures
  • e.g asking participants same question about which of 3 lines matched standard line
  • means experiment can be repeated by others
  • all evs were controlled - conducted in artificial environment
  • e.g size of group/type of participants
  • internal
  • controlled environment means only iv affected dv so can be sure which factors affect conformity
  • can establish cause & effect between conformity & majority influence
  • easily replicable
• X lacks ecological validity?

  • in aschs study he used artificial task of making participants match different length lines to standard line
  • not something people do in everyday life
  • so behaviour will be unnatural
  • ? ecological
  • only shows why people conform in controlled environment where may be subject to demand characteristics
  • may confound results
  • cannot generalise results to levels of conformity in real life
• X out of date?

  • aschs study was in 1950s where people more inclined to follow societies norms/values
  • due to cold war between east & west leading to higher levels of conformity
  • perrin & spencer 1980 repeated study with engineering students in uk found very different results
  • only 1 student conformed to wrong answer
  • ? temporal
  • can be argued that people are less conformist now
  • so can be argued aschs study does not apply to modern day society
• X androcentrism?

  • asch only used males in study
  • males are unlikely to have similar levels of conformity compared to women
  • neto 1995 found that women have higher levels of conformity than men due to them caring more about social relationships & opinions
  • ? population
  • findings are androcentric
  • cannot generalise findings to entire population in particular women