Evaluation to Asch's conformity study

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P - one limitation is that the research is conflicting evidence

Ev - ==Perrin and Spencer== replicated Asch’s research with UK engineering students. They found that only one participant conformed to the majority. This shows that conformity could have dropped due to it being a different time and culture

Ex - therefore Asch’s research cannot be replicated in different settings and time periods and could be culturally biased.

P - another limitation is Asch used an artificial environment and task

Ev - in real life, we are not often faced with tasks similar to what Asch presented. This does not reflect situations in which people may conform to their daily lives.

Ex - therefore, this study lacks ecological validity as it cannot be generalised to everyday situations of conformity

P - it has limitation application due to bias sample of participants

Ev - Asch only used American male undergraduate participants of a certain age group. This means that this study was not tested on females or individuals from other cultures

Ex - therefore this study lacks population validity and the results cannot be generalised to females or older groups of people

P - another limitation is breach of ethical guidelines

Ev - Asch deceived his participants in his study by not informing them of the true aim/purpose of the research. Participants believed they were completing a vision task whereas the real purpose of the study was to test for conformity.

Ex - therefore, even though there was a breach of ethical guidelines, the benefits outweigh the ethical issues, supporting cost benefit analysis