Explanations of Resistance to Social Influence Flashcards
SOCIAL SUPPORT:
People can resist pressures to conform or obey when they receive social support.
SOCIAL SUPPORT: Resisting Conforming:
The individual must identify with the ally and see them as a role model of independent behaviour in
order to resist conforming.
Individuals who have support for their point of view no longer fear being ridiculed, giving them confidence to avoid normative social influence.
Social Support; Resisting Obedience:
The ally acts as a model of independent behaviour, which frees the person to resist obedience and be
more confident to act from their own conscience.
Furthermore, in certain situations having other allies leads to diffusion of responsibility – the individual
will feel less responsible for their actions if there are others who are acting the same way, so the
consequence of resisting is shared.
Research to support by Albrecht procedure
evaluated programme to help pregnant adolescents resist peer pressure to smoke.
Social support was provided by a slightly older mentor or ‘buddy’
Albrecht findings
It was found those who had a ‘buddy’ were
significantly less likely to smoke than a those without a ‘buddy’. This supports social support as the ‘buddy’ acted
as an ally which gave the pregnant adolescents the confidence to resist the pressures to smoke
Criticism of Albrecht
other factors may affect the likelihood of resisting social influence
through social support such as the credibility of the ally. If the model is not seen as credible, the individual will not identify with them and therefore will be less likely to join them in resisting social influence, for example when the dissenter in Asch’s variations clearly had poor eyesight, resistance levels dropped significantly.
example of an ally which isnt credible
the dissenter in Asch’s variations clearly had poor eyesight, resistance levels dropped significantly.
Research to support resisting the pressure to obey comes from?
Milgram
Procedure of Milgram
The real participant was paired with two additional confederates (who also played the role of
teachers). The two additional confederates refused to go on and withdrew from the experiment early.
Obedience dropped to 10%
What did obedience drop to in Milgram’s variation where two confederates were teachers?
10%
Locus of Control definition
A personality trait which refers to a person’s perception of personal control
over their behaviour. There is a scale of locus of control, with internal at one end and external at the
other.
Internal locus of control:
Those with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist social
influence, as they believe they control what happens to them and their behaviour. Their behaviour is due
to their own personal decisions and effort and trust their own judgement more than others. Individuals
with a strong internal locus of control are more likely to remain independent in their behaviour and rely
less on the opinions of others.
External Locus of Control:
Those with an external locus of control are less likely to resist social influence
They believe that what happens to them is determined by external factors such luck or fate and put more
trust into the judgement / decisions of authority figures. Individuals with an external locus take less
personal responsibility for their actions and are less likely to remain independent.
Research to support locus of control was conducted by
Milgram
Research to support locus of control from Milgram procedure
interviewed Milgram’s
original participants and found that those who had an internal locus of control were significantly more
likely to refuse to continue giving shocks, whereas those with an external locus of control were more likely
to be within the 65% that gave the full 450v
Research to contradict locus of control as an explanation of resistance to social influence comes from
Twenge
Twenge procedure and finding
Twenge, who analysed data from studies investigating locus of control over a 40-year period. The data
showed that over this time span, people became more resistant to social influence but also more
external. This contradicts locus of control
