Explanations of resistance to social influence Flashcards
what is resistance to social influence?
the ways in which individual,s attempt to withstand perceived attempts to threaten freedom of choice
what are the explanations of resistance to social influence?
social support, locus of control, systematic processing, morality and personality
what is social support?
when others in social situations who defy attempts to make them conform and obey, then it becomes much easier for someone to resist the social influence
how does the role of the dissenter in Asch’s variation study help resist social influence?
if the real pp saw a dissenter disagreeing with the majority wrong answer on critical trials, conformity dropped massively - they provide the pp with moral support
how does social support resist social influence?
if the majority don’t all agree, their impact is greatly reduced, so breaking the agreement of the majority leads to resisting social influence
how does the timing of social support affect how successful they are at gaining social support?
the earlier the social support is, the more influential, the sooner they speak out, the greater their chances of rallying others & resisting majority
what did Asch find about receiving social support earlier?
found if there is a dissenter who answers correctly from the start of the study, conformity drops from 32% to 5.5%, but if they do it later, conformity inly drops to 8.5%
what are disobedient models?
source of social support
how do disobedient models help resist social influence?
reduce the unanimity of the group, making it easier for people to act independently and they help demonstrate that disobedience is actually possible
what did Mullen et al find about disobedient models?
when disobedient models broke the law by jay-walking, pps were more likely to jay-walk themselves than when they weren’t present
who proposed Locus of control (LoC)?
Rotter
what is LoC?
the extent to which individuals believe they can control events in their lives
what do individuals with a high internal LoC believe?
that they can affect the outcomes of their situations
what do individuals with a high external LoC believe?
things turn out a certain way regardless of their actions
what is internal LoC?
the belief things happen as a result of an individuals choices and decisions
what is external LoC?
the belief that things happen as a result if luck, fate or other uncontrollable external forces
what did Rotter believe about people who have an internal LoC?
that it makes them more resistant to social pressure as they are more likely to see themselves as having a free choice to obey
what did Shute’s research find about LoC and conformity?
exposed undergraduates to peers who expressed either conservative or liberal attitudes to drug taking and found that undergraduates with an internal LoC conformed less to expressing pro-drug attitudes - supporting internal LoC increases resistance to authority
what did Spector find about LoC and conformity?
found that pps with high external locus of control did conform more than those with low but only in situations that produced normative social pressure - shows that people with less of a need for acceptance in social group will be more able to resist social influence
what did Blass find about LoC and obedience after reviewing Holland’s work?
pps with an internal LoC were more able to resist obedience than those with an external LoC - those with internal LoC were especially resistant if they thought the researcher was trying to force or manipulate them to obey
how many pp’s in Richardson’s research?
84 male & female students in randomly assigned same-sex groups of 3, 2 were confeds & 1 real pp
what is the procedure for Richardson’s research?
real pp were led to believe they were newcomers of the group - introduced themselves, confed always first - the confeds described biographical details as of high or low status - they then looked at 2 stock companies & decided which to invest in - 1 clearly superior - real pp always answered last with their opinion - confeds chose weaker one
what are the findings for Richardson’s research?
in teams where confeds were believed to be high status, pp’s conformed to group decision - reverse for low status
what are the conclusions for Richardson’s research?
people of lower status conform to decisions of those group members of perceived higher status in order to attain higher status
people of higher perceived status within a group are more able to resist attempts to make them conform
give evaluation points for Richardson’s research?
unethical - deceit - confeds not who claimed to be - didn’t give informed consent
what is systematic processing as an explanation for resistance to social influence?
people less likely to obey orders that have negative outcomes if they are given time to consider the consequences of what they have been ordered to do - but expectation in institutional settings is that orders should be compiled with immediately without thought
what did Martin et al find about systematic processing?
when pp’s were encouraged & allowed to consider the content of an unreasonable order, they were less likely to obey, demonstrating the power if systematic processing in resisting SI
what is Morality as an explanation of resistance to social influence?
people who make decisions on whether to obey or not based on moral considerations are more resistant to obedience than those who don’t
what did Milgram find about morality and resistance to SI?
1 pp who didn’t fully obey, stated he was a vicar and so his religious morality helped him resist the authority figures commands to deliver the electric shocks
what is personality as an explanation of resistance to SI?
research suggests that individuals that can empathise with the feelings of others are more able to resist orders with destructive consequences
what is Oliner & Oliner’s research on personality & SI?
compared people who had vs hadn’t sheltered Jews in Nazi Europe - those that did had an upbringing that stressed social norms of helping others - as this was against the law it shows the importance of impart as a personality characteristic which helps resist destructive obedience
