resistance to social influence Flashcards
1
Q
what does resistance to social influence refer to?
A
- the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority
- this ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by both situational and dispositional factors
2
Q
what is social support?
A
- the presence of people to resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same
- these people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible
3
Q
social support: resisting conformity
A
- the pressure to conform can be restricted if there are other people present who are not conforming
- the fact that there is someone else not following the majority enables the naive pp to follow their conscience
- the confederate acts as a ‘model’ of independent behaviour
- their dissent gives rise to more dissent because it shows that the majority is no longer unanimous
eg. asch’s research with unanimity
4
Q
social support: resisting obedience
A
- pressure to obey can be restricted if there is another people 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
- even if the participant does not follow the disobedient person’s behaviour, the other person’s disobedience acts as a ‘model’ of dissent for the participant to copy and this frees them to act from their own conscience
- the disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure, making it easier for others to disobey
5
Q
evaluation for social support: research support (susan albrecht et al., 2006)
A
- evaluated teen fresh start USA (an 8 week programmed to help pregnant adolescents aged 14-19 resist peer pressure to smoke
- social support was provided by a slightly older mentor or ‘buddy’
- at the end of the programme, adolescents who had a ‘buddy’ were significantly less likely to smoke than a control group of participants who did not have a buddy
- this shows that social support can help young people resist social influence as a part of an intervention in the real world
6
Q
evaluation: social support evaluation (allen & levine, 1971)
A
- resisting conformity
- found independence increased with one dissenter in an asch-type study
- when dissenter was someone with apparently good eyesight, 64% of genuine pps refused to conform
- when there was no supporter at all, only 3% of pps resisted
- this occurred even if the dissenter wore thick glasses and said he had problems with visions (ie. couldn’t judge line lengths), resistance was 36%
- resistance is therefore not motivated by following what someone else says but it enables someone to be free of pressure from the group
7
Q
evaluation for social support: research support for dissenting peers (gamson et al., 1982)
A
- resisting obedience
- found higher levels of rebellion than milgram did
- gamson’s participants were in groups to produce evidence that an oil company would use to run a smear campaign
- in gamson’s study, 29/33 groups of participants (88% rebelled)
- this could be because participants were in groups so could discuss what they were told to do
- this shows that peer support is linked to greater resistance and can lead to disobedience by undermining the legitimacy of an authority figure
8
Q
what does locus of control (LOC) refer to?
A
the sense that we each have about what directs events in our lives
9
Q
what did julian rotter (1966) propose about LOC?
A
it was a concept concerned with internal control vs. external control
10
Q
what is the difference between internal and external LOC?
A
- internal: believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves
- external: believe the things that happen are outside of their control
11
Q
the LOC continuum
A
- people are not just either internal or external
- LOC is a scale and individuals vary in their position on it
- high internal LOC is at one end of the continuum and high external at the other
- low internal and low external lie in-between
12
Q
how is LOC linked to resistance to social influence?
A
- people with a high internal LOC are more able to resist pressures to conform or obey
- if a person takes responsibility for their actions and experiences (as internals do), they tend to base their decisions on their own beliefs rather than depending on the opinions of others
13
Q
what is another explanation linking LOC and resistance to social influence?
A
- people with a high internal LOC tend to be more self-confident, more achievement-oriented and have higher intelligence
- these traits lead to greater resistance to social influence
- these are also characteristics of leaders, who have much less need for social approval than followers
14
Q
evaluation for LOC: research support (holland, 1967)
A
- repeated milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants were internal or externals
- he found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level
- only 23% of externals did not continue
- therefore, internals showed greater resistance to authority in a milgram-type situation
- this shows that resistance is at least partly related to LOC, which increases the validity of LOC as an explanation of disobedience
15
Q
evaluation for LOC: research support (oliner and oliner, 1988)
A
- interviewed 2 groups of non-jewish people who had lived through the holocaust and nazi germany
- compared 406 people who had protected and rescued jews from the nazis and 126 people who had not done this
- oliner and oliner found that the group that rescued the jews had scored demonstrating an internal locus of control
