resistance to social influence

Question 1

give 2 explanations for resistance to social influence

Answer 1

locus of control
social support

Question 2

what is the locus of control

Answer 2

Rotter (1966)
a measurement of an individual’s sense of control over their lives

Question 3

how is locus of control measured?

Answer 3

internal (more control) - believe that behaviour is caused by their own personal decisions and effort
external (less control) - believe that behaviour is caused by luck or fate

Question 4

people with a high internal locus of control…

Answer 4

may conform and obey less
because they take more responsibility for their own actions and see themselves as having more control so are more likely to make decisions based on their own moral code
more likely to be leaders

Question 5

people with a high external locus of control…

Answer 5

may conform and obey more
because they believe that their life events are beyond their control so are more likely to act on behalf of another and shift responsibility to them making them more susceptible towards obedience
more likely to be followers

Question 6

positive evaluation for locus of control

Answer 6

+ research evidence supports link between obedience and locus of control - Atgis (1998) conducted a meta-analysis of studies considering locus of control and likeliness to conform - found that people with high external loci were more easily persuaded - showing that high external loci leads to higher rate of conformity
+ research support links locus of control and social responsibility - Oliner and Oliner (1988) interviewed people that lived through the holocaust - found that rescuers of Jews from the Nazis had an internal locus of control and scored highly on measures of social responsibility

Question 7

negative evaluation for locus of control

Answer 7

• only valid in novel situations (Rutter) - previous experiences are more influential than LOC when an individual is making a decision - meaning that LOC is a limited explanation for obedience

Question 8

evidence of social support from Asch’s study

Answer 8

He found that when one confederate did not conform, conformity levels in the participant dropped to 1/4 of what they were when the majority had been unanimous due to the fact that the answer supported the participants true answer as it provided the participant with social support through providing an alternative source of information, giving the participant more confidence in their own perception which encourages the person to reject the majority position. therefore, resistance to obedience in this case would be due to social support

Question 9

positive evaluations supporting social support

Answer 9

+ a variation of Milgram’s study where there were two confederate who disobeyed against the majority caused the level of obedience to decrease to 10% showing that the social support provided from other participants gave the participant the confidence to reject the position of authority
+ Gamson et al gave support to the idea that larger groups provide a stronger social support system, which makes resisting obedience/social influence much easier. these researchers found that when participants were placed in groups, 88% resisted the pressure to conform to the same smear campaign which other confederates had developed. this clearly demonstrates the significant influence of social support systems