Asch Study evaluation

Question 1

Asch’s study was seen to be a child of its time, what does this mean

Answer 1

The research took place in a particular period of US history when conformity was high. Perrin and Spencer repeated the study in the UK in the 1980s with engineering students. Only one student conformed out of 396 trials.

Question 2

One limitation is Cultural differences in conformity, explain this

Answer 2

Markus and Kitayama suggest that a higher level of conformity arises in collectivist cultures because it is viewed favourably as a social glue that binds communities together.

Question 3

One limitation is generalisability, explain this

Answer 3

Asch only used male participants which creates gender bias and this means findings aren’t generalisable to a whole population