Resistance to social influence

Question 1

What is social support?

Answer 1

• The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same.

Question 2

What is resistance to social influence?

Answer 2

The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority

Question 3

How can we resist conformity?

Answer 3

• We can resist conformity if there are other people who are not conforming
• This was seen by Asch’s study when he increased unanimity
• The presence of someone else not following the majority is social support and enables the naive participant to follow their own conscience

Question 4

How do we resist obedience?

Answer 4

• The pressure to obey can be resisted when there is another person who disobeys
• In one of Milgrams variations, obedience dropped from 65% to 10%
• This means the other persons disobedience acts as a model of dissent for participants to copy and challenges the legitimacy of authority

Question 5

What is locus of control?

Answer 5

• This refers to the sense we have about what directs events in our lives.
• internal LOC believe that they largely control events in their life
• external LOC believe that things happen outside of their control

Question 6

How does the LOC vary?

Answer 6

• People are not just internal or external
• there are high/low externals and high/low internals

Question 7

Which individuals have a greater resistance to social influence?

Answer 7

• people with a high internal LOC are able to resist pressures to conform or obey
• If a person takes personal responsibility for their actions, they tend to base their decisions on their own beliefs
• People with high internal LOC also tend to be more self - confident, acheivement - oriented and higher intelligence.
• These are also characteristics of leaders

Question 8

What is a strength of social support? (S)

Answer 8

• One strength is research evidence
• Susan Albrecht evaluated teen fresh start USA , an eight week programme to help adolsescents resist peer pressure to smoke
• social support was provided by a slightly older mentor
• At the end of the programme, those with a buddy were less likely to smoke

Question 9

What is another strength of social support? (D)

Answer 9

• there is support of the role of dissenting peers
• Gamson et al had participants produce evidence that would be used to help an oil company run a smear campaign
• The researchers found a higher level of resistance than Milgram because participants were in groups and could discuss what they were told to do
• 29/33 groups rebelled against their oders
• this shows peer support can lead to disobedience by undermining the legitimacy of an authority figure

Question 10

What is a strength of LOC?

Answer 10

• There is research support to link LOC to resistance to obedience
• Holland repeated Milgrams baseline study and measured if the participants were internals or externals. He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest level of shock (showed some resistance), whereas 23% of externals did not continue
• This shows that resistance is related to LOC, increasing the validity of LOC

Question 11

What is a limitation of LOC?

Answer 11

• There is contradictory research
• There is evidence that challenges LOC and resistance
• Twenge et al analysed data from LOC studies over 40 years and found that over this time span, externals have become more resistant to obedience and also more external
• This contradicts that high internal LOC may not be more resistant than externals

Question 12

Who proposed LOC?

Answer 12

• Rotter