What are methological issues in asch's study?

There are a number of methodological issues in Asch's study.

For a start, there are questions over external validity. Asch performed his study with male students in America during the cold war. It has been shown that people from individualistic cultures conform less than people from collectivist cultures (see Doms and Chandra). Also, the fact it was during the cold war is important. Larsen repeated the test after the cold war and found lower rates of conformity.

There are also questions specifically over ecological validity. The test was artificial and trivial and it's been suggested that it cannot therefore be generalised to real life.

Finally, there are questions over internal validity. Many of the participants said they were simply conforming to not mess up the experiment. This suggests that some conformity is due to demand characteristics and not the presence of the group.