Resistance to social influence

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

• pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people who don’t conform
• the effect may not be long lasting
• dissident gave the ppts social support and gave them feel more confident in their own answer
• ALLEN AND LEVINE - dissenter wore thick glasses and conformity still decreased ( enables someone to be free of the pressure from the group)
• breaks the unanimous position of the majority

Question 2

Obedience

Answer 2

• pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person obeying
• frees people to act on their true feelings
• Milgram variation: obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the ppts were joined by a disobedient conf
• gamson et al higher levels of resistance 88% rebelled - peer support is linked to greater resistance

Question 3

locus of control

Answer 3

• refers to the sense we have about what directs events in our lives
  a concept concerned with internal control versus external control

Question 4

internal loc

Answer 4

• a great deal of personal control over their behaviour so are more likely to take responsibility for the way they behave
• less conforming = less obedience = resisting social pressure

Question 5

external loc

Answer 5

believe things happen without their own control (luck)

Question 6

holland (1967)

Answer 6

• reported Milgram’s study and measured whether participants were internal and externals
• internal = 37% didn’t continue to highest shock (resistance)
• external = 23% didn’t continue
• internals showed greater resistance to authority

Question 7

Twenge et al (2004)

Answer 7

• 40 year period people have become more resistant to obedience but also more external
• challenges link between internal loc and increasing resistant behaviour
• results in are due to a changing society where many things are increasingly outside personal control

Question 8

limited role of loc

Answer 8

• role of loc may have been exaggerated
• past experience may be more important
• if people conformed in the past they are more likely to do it again even if they have high internal loc

Question 9

define resistance to social influence

Answer 9

the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority
- influenced by situational and dispositional factors

Question 10

Rotter et al 1982

Answer 10

• loc is only important in new situations
• little influence in a familiar situation
• loc can only explain only a limited range of situations in which people might resist social influence
• loc is not as important a factor in resistance