With reference to alternative research findings, critically assess Aschs study into conformity

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With reference to alternative research findings, critically assess Asch’s study into conformity

A study that criticises Asch is by William & Sogon (1984) who claimed that the group Asch created did not reflect all groups found in society. They found that majority influence was significantly greater among friends than among strangers. Therefore Asch failed to realise that he could have obtained much stranger majority influence if he had replaced groups of strangers with an in0group of friends of the genuine participants & consequently this limits Asch findings to only groups of strangers & as a result lacks generalisability to other populations. And to support this Abrams et al (1990) argued that 1st year psychology participants would show more conformity if the other group members were perceived as belonging to an in group (other 1st yr psychology students) than if they were perceived as belonging to an out group (history students).

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Eagli & Carli (1981) criticise Asch study for being gender biased. They claim that in Western societies a masculine bias exists & as a consequence women show higher levels of conformity than men in the Asch study. They also found that in feminist societies, women actually show less conformity than men. This criticises Ash because he ignored complex gender characteristics that would have affected his results.

Also David & Turner (1996) criticise Asch by claiming that he ignored group dynamics that exist in real society. For example, many minorities show considerable influence on the wider group i.e. gay rights. This ...

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The Quality of Written Communication is fair enough that the sentences make sense, however, the adherence to the rules of Standard English are not always apparent and have been ousted in favour of short-hand alternatives, such as the frequent use of ampersand (&) instead of the word "and", or "1st yr" instead of "first year". This, whilst seemingly insignificant, is not acceptable at A Level, particularly in a subject whose exams are based heavily on language and so will attribute many more marks to QWC than other, non-essay based questions.

The Level of Analysis is good as each evaluation point is nicely backed up by a study and then explained well, with the effect of said evaluation point made clear, although some extra precision in parts would help the answer become even clearer and indicate to the examiner there is a flawless knowledge of psychology here. For instance, where the candidate mentions strangers limiting the generalisability of Asch's results, it would perhaps be more prudent to focus on the bias to Western cultural viewpoints and expectations as a critique of generalisability, rather than simply strangers. The reason for this is it ties in another big evaluation point of ethnocentrism (the 'imported etic') and it also encourages a more psychologically-sound analysis, based on real varying cultures, rather than simply "stranger" culture.

The Response to the Question is good. The candidate answers well and extensively, drawing on a number of study sources to help evaluate the study by Asch into conformity. Though the candidate provides a good level of detail with regard to studies that support or refute the data provided by Asch's study into conformity, balance however, is not shown here. All assessment questions should be balanced with about three of four advantages with an equal number of disadvantages, and so the bias towards the negative critique can lose the candidate marks for balanced structure.