Resistance to social influence Flashcards
1
Q
What is resistance to social influence?
A
- Refers to the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority
- this ability is influenced by situational & dispositional factors
2
Q
What are the two explanations for resistance to social influence?
A
Social support - situational
Locus of control- dispositional
3
Q
What is social support?
A
- situational explanation for resistance which states that the presence of people who resist the pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same- act as models
4
Q
Where was resisting conformity
present in Asch study due to social support?
A
- Asch’s line study (unanimity variation) - the confederate told to give correct answer on line judgement task
- conformity dropped from 32% to 5%
- enabled naive participant to be free to follow own conscience and acted as a model for independent behvaiour
5
Q
Where was resisting obedience present in Milgrams study due to social support?
A
- Milgram variations > participant joined by disobedient confederates who refused to administer electric shocks
- obedience dropped for 65% to 10%
- disobedient model allows for p’s to copy & challenges LOA figure= easier to disobey
6
Q
What is Locus of control?
A
- dispotional explanation for resistance proposed by Rotter (1966) which refers to how much a person believes they have control over events in our lives
7
Q
What is internal LOC?
A
- People who believe that they have control over their own lives
e.g. if i do well in an exam it’s because i’ve studied hard if not it’s because i didn’t study hard
8
Q
What is external LOC?
A
- People who believe they don’t have control over events in their life and are controlled by external forces
Eg. if i did bad on exam it was bad luck if i did well it’s beacuse my teacher is the best
9
Q
Why are people with high internal LOC more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey?
A
- tend to base their decisions around their own beliefs rather than opinion of others
- tend to be more self-confident, achievement orientated & intelligent
- have characteristics of leader>who have much less need for social approval
10
Q
What is a strength of social support as an explanation for resistance?
A
- evidence of its positive effects
- Albrecht et al evaluated Teen Fresh start USA»_space; a programme to help pregnant adolescents resist pressure to smoke
- social support was provided by a buddy (acted as a model)
- end of programme»_space; adolescents who had buddy less likely to smoke than control who did not have a buddy
- SS can help young people resist SI
11
Q
What is another strength of social support as an explanation for resistance?
A
- evidence to support role of dissenting peers in resiting obedience
- Gamson et al- >made up a situation where p’s told to produce evidence to help company run a smear campaign
- p’s were in groups so could discuss what they were told to do
- 29/33 groups of p’s rebelled to support the company.
- This shows that peer support is linked to greater resistance by undermining LOA figure
12
Q
What is a strength of LOC as an explanation for resistance?
A
- evidence to support link between LOC & resistance to obedience
- Holland > repeated Milgram’s baseline study & measured whether participants were externals or internals
- 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level compared to 23% of externals who did not continue to highest shock level
- internals show greater resistance
- resistance related to LOC as internals more likely to resist pressures to obey, increases validity of LOC
13
Q
What is a limitation of LOC as an explanation of obedience?
A
- evidence that challenges the link between LOC & resistance to obedience
- Twenge et al (2004) > analysed data from American LOC studies over a 40 Yr period
- data showed, over this time span people have become more resistant to obedience but also more external (LOC).
- If resistance were linked to an internal LOC» expect people to have become more internal
- LOC not a valid explanation
