Resistance to social influence

Question 1

A01

Define Resistance to social influence

Answer 1

• The ability to withdraw social pressure to conform to majority/obey authority
  Some ppl more resistant to social influence.
  This can be explained by the person’s locus of control, or whether received social support.

Question 2

A01

Explain social support in resisting conformity

Answer 2

pressure to conform - resisted if other ppl are not conforming
fact that someone is not following majority is social support .
It enables naiive participants to be free to follow - own conscience.

A03:
In One of Aschs variations , the confederate was instructed to give the correct answer throughout , conformity dropped to 5% his dissent gave rise to more dissent , demonstratesppl are more likely to resist pressure to conform when recieve social support

Question 3

A01

Explain social support in terms of resisting obedience

Answer 3

If individuals have social support for their point of view they are more likely to disobey orders
A03
In one of milgrams variations the genuine p was paired with 2 CF who also played role of teacher
The CF refused to go on & Withdrew from experiment early
in this variation the % of real p who procedded to full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 10%
shows if real p has support for desire to disobey, then likely to resist pressure to authority figure

Question 4

A01

Explain Locus of control (Rotter 1966)

Answer 4

‘Locus of control’ refers to how much control a person feels they have in their own behavior. A person can either have an internal or external locus of control (Rotter, 1954).
Proposed locus of control(LOC) as a concept concerned with internal control vs external control
The LOC continuum- is a scale & individuals vary in their position

Question 5

A01

Define Internal locus of control

Answer 5

ppl with internal LOC-believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves ,perceive themselves as having much personal control over their behavior and are, more likely to take responsibility for their behavior.

e.g if failed exam its because havent worked hard

Question 6

A01

Define external Locus of control

Answer 6

Ppl with external LOC-tend to believe that things that happen to them are outside their control
e.g if did well in exam-because of good textbook if failed blame it on texbook or bad luck

they believe majority of their life events are beyond their control, this means more likely to act on behalf of another (i.e. as their agent) and shift responsibility onto this individual. Those with an external locus of control are susceptible towards obedience

Question 7

A01

Explain resistance to social influence refer to internal LOC

Answer 7

PPl with high internal LOC able to resist pressure to conform/obey
high internals seek out info that help them personally, less likely to rely on others .
They are more achievement orientated & higher intelligence
these traits-leads to greater resistance to social influence

Also characteristics of leaders-who have less need for social approval

Question 8

A03

Explain Contradictory research between LOC & resistance
Twenge et al-external became more resistant

Research for locus of control

Answer 8

Twenge et al analysed data from american locus of control studies conducted over 40 year period
data showed people became more resistant to obedience but also more external
suprising outcome as resistance is most likely linked to internal LOC
suggests LOC is not valid in explaing how ppl resist social influence

Question 9

A03

Research support-for link between LOC & resistance to obedience

Answer 9

Holland repeated milgrams baseline study & measured whether p internal/external
found 37% of internal did not continue to highest shock level
whereas only 23% of externals did not contunue
thus shows internal greater resistance to obedience-increases validity of LOC