Resistance to Social Influence

Question 1

What are the two explanations for resistance to social influence?

Answer 1

• Social Support
• Locus of Control

Question 2

How does social support affect resistance to conformity?

Answer 2

• Conformity is reduced when a dissenting peer differs from the majority, providing social support
• Enables the other person to make free decisions
• Acts as a model of independence
• Encourages further separation from the majority

Question 3

How does social support affect resistance to obedience?

Answer 3

• Obedience drops if there is another person who openly disobeys
• In one of Milgram’s variations, obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when someone openly disobeyed.
• Acts as a model of disobedience
• Frees individual from agentic state

Question 4

What is a strength of social support?

Answer 4

• Allen and Levine (1971) created
  an Asch-like task.
• When a dissenter was present, 64% of genuine participants refused to conform.
• When there was no social support at all, only 3% resisted.

Question 5

What is a strength of social support?

Answer 5

• Albrecht et al (2006) looked at an 8-week programme to help pregnant adolescents resist peer pressure to smoke. Social support was provided by a “mentor/buddy”.
• They found at the end of the programme, those with a buddy were significantly less likely to smoke than a control group who did not have a buddy.

Question 6

What is a strength of social support?

Answer 6

• Gamson et al (1982) found higher levels of resistance in their study, where participants
  were in groups, than Milgram
• They had to produce evidence to help an oil company run a ‘smear campaign’
• 29 out of 33 groups of participants (88%) rebelled

Question 7

Define external Locus of Control

Answer 7

• When a person believes that they are not responsible for their own actions
• “Things happen to them”

Question 8

Define internal Locus of Control

Answer 8

• When a person believes that they are responsible for their own actions and future
• “They make things happen”

Question 8

How does LoC affect obedience/conformity?

Answer 8

• People with high internal LoC will be more resistant to pressure to conform/obey
• Because they make their own decisions based on their beliefs and are more self-confident

Question 9

What is a strength of LoC?

Answer 9

• Oliner and Oliner (1988) used an interview method to study two groups of non-Jewish people who had lived through the Holocaust
• They compared 406 people who had protected and rescued Jews from the Nazis (non-conformers) with 126 who had not done this.
• They found that the rescuers scored higher on measures of social responsibility and had
  scores showing an internal locus of control

Question 10

What is a weakness of LoC?

Answer 10

• Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s study and measured whether participants were
  internals or externals
• 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (they showed independence)
• Only 23% of externals did not continue to the highest shock level

Question 11

What is a weakness of LoC?

Answer 11

• Twenge et al (2004) analysed data from American obedience studies over a 40-year period (1960-2002)
• The data showed that, over this time span, people have become more resistant to obedience but more external

Question 12

What is a weakness of LoC?

Answer 12

• Rotter et al (1982) found LOC is only important in new situations – it has little influence in familiar situations where previous experiences are always more
  important