Resistance to social influence Flashcards
Social support
The perception that a person has assistance avaliable from other people within the group.
- Makes them better able to remain independent in situations where they would be expected to conform or obey
- It enables individuals to resist pressures to conform as it breaks the unanimity of the majority
- Disobedient peers act as role models on which a person can base their own behaviour, e.g resisting an order from an authority figure
Locus of control
Is a person’s perception of personal control of their own behaviour.
- People with a strong internal LOC believe what happens to them is a result of their own ability and effort rather than the influence of others
People with a strong internal LOC
believe what happens to them is a result of their own ability and effort rather than the influence of others
- bc internals are less likely to rely on the opinons of others, this makes them less vulnerableto social influence.
- Believe what happens to them is determined by external factors, such as influence of others or luck and so are less likely to display Independent behaviour.
AO3
Response order is important in social support
Social support AO3
P: Allen and Levin (1969) believed that the response positon of some providing social support to make a difference to its effect
E: Support was significantly more effective when confederates gave the correct answer (with other confederates all giving the same wrong answer) first rather than fourth (just before the real participant responded).
E: A correct first answer, as it confirms the p’s own judgement, produces an initial commitment to correct response that endures even though other group members disagree.
Research to support the importance of social support in resiting social influence
Social support AO3
P: Rees and wallace (2015) showed that social support provided by friends helped adolescents resist conformity pressures from the majority
E: They found individuals who had a majority of friends who drank alchohol were able to resist pressures to drink when they had a friend or two who also resisited
E: This shows that the social support offered by non-drinking friends decicing to consume alcohol even when faced with a drinking majority.
Locus of control does not always helps us to resist pressures to conform
P: In a study of undergraduates, spector (1983) found that differences in locus of control only predicted their abilitiy to resist some types of social influence.
E: He found that internals were more likely to resist NSI than externals, but found that locus of control did not appear to be a significant factor in resisting ISI
E: This suggests that a high degree of internality only helps individuals to resists pressures to conform where their main motivation is to gain approval.
People are more external than they used to be and so less able to resist social influence
P: Research has found a historical trend in locus of control, with young people becoming increasingly external.
E: A meta-analysis by Twenge et al (2004) has found that locus of control scores in US students had become substantially more external between 1960 and 2002
E: Tweng suggests this due to an increasingly belief among young people that their fate was determined more by luck and powerful others rather than their own actions.
The importance of social support is resiting authority has been demonstrated in real life
Real-world applications
AO3
P: The rosenstrasse protest in Nazi-controlled Berlin in 1943 was a stark illustration of Milgram’s research in real life.
E: German women protested agaisnt the arrest of their Jewish husbands. Despite threats that they would be fired upon, the women collectively refused orders to disperse and their husbands were eventually set free.
E: The Rosenstrasse protest mirrors Milgram’s finding that the present of disobedient peers gives an individual the confidence and courage to resist the authority’s orders.
