Solomon Asch
| Solomon Asch | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | September 14, 1907 Warsaw, Congress Poland |
| Died | February 20, 1996 (aged 88) Haverford, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Residence |
Poland (1907–1920) United States (1920–1996) |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Fields | Psychology (Gestalt, social, cognitive) |
| Institutions |
College of the City of New York Columbia University Swarthmore College Harvard University |
| Alma mater | College of the City of New York, Columbia University |
| Academic advisors | Max Wertheimer |
| Notable students | Stanley Milgram |
| Known for | Social psychology (Social influence, conformity), Asch conformity experiments |
Solomon Eliot Asch (September 14, 1907 – February 20, 1996) was a Polish gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology in the United States. He created seminal pieces of work in impression formation, prestige suggestion, conformity, and many other topics in social psychology. His work follows a common theme of Gestalt psychology that the whole is not only greater than the sum of its parts, but the nature of the whole fundamentally alters the parts. Asch stated: "Most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated. No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function" (Asch, 1952, p. 61). He is most well known for his conformity experiments, in which he demonstrated the influence of group pressure on opinions. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Asch as the 41st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Asch was born in Warsaw, Poland on September 14, 1907 to a Jewish family. He grew up in a small town, Łowicz, Poland.
In 1920 Asch emigrated at the age of 13 with his family to the United States. They lived on the Lower East Side of New York, a dense area of many Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants. His friends called him Shlaym.
Asch was shy when he moved to the United States and did not speak English fluently. He went to the neighborhood public school, P.S. 147, to attend 6th grade. As a result of the language barrier, Asch had a very difficult time understanding in class. He learned English by reading Charles Dickens. Asch later attended Townsend Harris High School, a very selective high school attached to the City College of New York. After high school, he attended the City College of New York, majoring in both literature and science. He became interested in psychology towards the end of his undergraduate career after reading the work of William James and a few philosophers. In 1928, when he was 21 years old, he received his Bachelor of Science.
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