Psychology: How to briefly outline and evaluate the findings of any one study of social influence.

This question is asking to first outline a study and then evaluate it, i.e. Asch's (1951) conformity studies. To outline the question we would first briefly introduce the study (its purpose, aim), then briefly explain the procedure of the study (methodology), followed by an overview of the findings and conclusions of the study. To evaluate it we would discuss any ethical issues regarding the study, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of all elements of the study, and briefly, touch upon how this study can be applied to the real world. In answering this question it is equally important to outline and evaluate Asch's conformity study, so do not spend too much of your time describing the study at the expense of its evaluation. A summarised version of this can be found below: 

Asch (1951) wanted to investigate how social pressures from a majority group could influence a person to conform. He placed each of his 50 male participants in a small group of 5-7 confederates and presented them with figures of a standard line and three comparison lines. They were asked to say which of the comparison lines matched the standard line. Asch's confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 /18 trials, to see if the true participant would follow. The findings of the study showed that one-third of the participants in this situation conformed to the obviously incorrect majority and that over the 12 critical trials only 25% of participants never conformed. The control group also showed that without confederates, less than 1% of participants were incorrect. The participants claimed that social pressures had made them conform - suggesting a normative influence. In evaluating the study it is important to recognise the limitations of the experiment, which are the male-only sample (findings can't be generalised), lack of ecological validity due to the task at hand (matching lines, is not representative of conformity in the real world), and various ethical issues (deception, psychological distress). Despite this, Asch's pioneering study demonstrated how social pressures can influence people to conform to the majority of a group.