Resistance to social influence Flashcards
What is meant by resistance?
The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey the authority. This ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by both situational and dispositional factors.
What is the dispositional factor affecting resistance to social influence?
Locus of control
Locus of Control (LOC)
Julian Rotter (1966) first proposed the concept of locus of control. It is a concept concerned with internal control versus external control. Internals believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves. For example, if you do well in an exam, it is because you worked hard, if you don’t do well, it is because you didn’t work hard. Externals believe that things happen without their own control. For example, if you did well in you exam, you might say it was because they used an excellent textbook. If you failed you might blame it on the textbook or you had bad luck as the questions were hard.
Locus of Control - Continuum
(Mixture of both). People differ in the way they explain their successes and failures but it isn’t simply a matter of being internal or external. There is a continuum with high internal LOC at one end and high external LOC at the other end of the continuum, with low internal and low external lying in between.
Locus of Control - Resistance to social influence
People who have a high internal LOC are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey. This is fairly obvious if you think about it - if a person take personal responsibility for their actions and experiences, then they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs and thus resist pressure. Another explanation for the link with greater resistance is that people with high internal LOC tend to be more self-confident, more achievement-oriented, have higher intelligence and less need for social approval. These personality traits lead to greater resistance to social influence.
Internal LOC
- People with an internal locus of control feel they have influence and control overall their lives.
- Believe the things that happen to them are largely controlled by them.
- They are confident, feel secure, have a positive outlook and need little approval from others.
- They are less likely to conform.
- They are less likely to obey authority.
External LOC
- People with an external locus of control feel that they have little/no influence and control over their lives.
- They have a greater need for approval.
- They are more prone to NSI.
- More likely to conform.
- More likely to obey authority
How does this link to resistance?
Locus of control research has uncovered a number of characteristics of internals and externals that have relevance for the study of independent behaviour. These include the following:
1. High internals are active seekers of information that is useful to them, and so are less likely to rely on the opinions of others.
2. High internals tend to be more achievement-oriented and consequently are more likely to become leaders and entrepreneurs.
3. High internals are better able to resist coercion from others.
Therefore, people with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist the pressure to conform and obey.
LOC - Strength
Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline/original study and measured whether participants were internals or externals. He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (they showed resistance) whereas only 23% of externals did not continue.
LOC - Strength
Atgis (1998) carried out a meta analysis of studies, which considered locus of control and conformity, and found that those who scored higher on external locus of control were more easily persuaded and likely to conform than those with a low score. This suggests there are genuinely higher rates of conformity in ‘externals’ than ‘internals’.
LOC - Weakness
Contradicting research - Twenge et al found that over 40 years, people became more resistant to obedience but more external in their beliefs. This suggests that LOC is not a suitable explanation of resistance.
LOC - Weakness
Some argue that the role of LOC in resisting social influence is exaggerated. Rotter argues that LOC only comes into action in novel (new) situations. It therefore has little influence over our behaviour in familial situations where previous experiences will always be more important.
What is the situational factor affecting resistance to social influence?
Social support
Social support - Conformity
Social support can help people to resist conformity. The pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people present who are not conforming. As we saw in Asch’s research, the person not conforming doesn’t have to be given the ‘right’ answer but simply the fact that someone else is not following the majority appears to enable a person to be free to follow their own conscience. This other person acts as a ‘model’. However, Asch’s research also showed that if this non-conforming person starts conforming again, so does the naïve participant. Thus the effect of dissent is not long lasting.
Social support - Obedience
Social support can also help people to resist obedience. The pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person who is seen to disobey. In one of Milgram’s variations, the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate. The participant may not follow the disobedient person’s behaviour but the point is the other person’s disobedience acts as a ‘model’ for the participant to copy that frees him to act from his own conscience.
