Resistance To Social Influence Flashcards
What is social support?
Social support is when there is an individual who does not follow the majority.
How does social support help one resist the pressure of conforming?
This helps one resist the pressure of conforming as it enables them to be free to follow their own conscience - the deviant acts as a model for independent behaviour which leads to more dissent and so the majority is no longer unanimous.
How does social support help one resist the pressure of being obedient?
Research has shown that individuals are more confident in resisting the temptation to obey when they have an alley who is willing to join them in opposing an authority figure.
For example, in one of Milgram’s variations in his original study on obedience, the pp was one of three testing the learner. The other two were actually confederates who consistently refused to shock the learner and eventually withdrew. Their deviance had an effect on the genuine pp with only 10 percent continuing to the maximum voltage level.
What is meant by the locus of control?
The sense we each have about what directs events in our lives. For example, individuals with an internal locus of control believe they are mainly responsible for what happens to them whereas individuals with an external locus of control believe things happen mainly out of luck or other outside forces.
Why are people with an internal locus of control likely to conform and obey less?
They believe they are responsible for the things that happen to them and so they take responsibility for their actions and see themselves as having control. These people are likely to make decisions based on their moral code, not somebody else’s. Therefore, they are more likely to be leaders and so resist the pressure to conform and obey.
Why do people with an external locus of control conform and obey more?
These individuals believe that majority of their life events are beyond their control and so they are more likely to be an agent to someone and shift responsibility onto them. Therefore, they are more susceptible to obedience and conforming.
What is one strength of explanations of resistance to social influence?
- Research has shown that individuals are more confident in resisting the temptation to obey when they have an alley who is willing to join them in opposing an authority figure.
What are 2 limitations of explanations of resistance to social influence?
- People are becoming more external over the years.
Twenge et al: conducted a meta analysis and found that young Americans increasingly believed that their fate was determined by luck rather than their own actions.
The researchers found that locus of control score had been more external in student and child samples between 1960 and 2002.
interpreted this trend towards an external locus of control in terms of alienation experienced by young people and the tendency to explain misfortunes on outside forces. - The role of LOC in resisting social influence may be exaggerated.
Rotter found LOC is only important in new situations. Familiar situations are influenced more by previous experiences.
People who have obeyed in the past are more likely to obey again in a similar situation, even if they have a high internal LOC.
Therefore, this means the LOC can only explain a narrow range of new situations.
