Resistance to Social Influence

Question 1

Outline the two ways in which we can resist social influence

Answer 1

• Social support (conformity and obedience) = The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey which in turn help others to do the same. These a models who show resistance to social influence is possible.
• Locus of control = The sense we have about what directs events in our lives. Rotter proposed that “high internals” believe they are responsible for everything that happens to them, “high externals” believe it is up to luck or fate.

Question 2

How are social support and conformity linked?

Answer 2

• The pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other non-conforming people (dissenters) present
• In Asch’s unanimity variation the rate of conformity dropped from 36.8% to 5.5% when a dissenter was present
• Social support breaks the unanimity of the majority (the group) which raises the possibility of other acceptable ways to behave
• Allows naive participant to think independently and gives them confidence to follow their own conscience

Question 3

How are social support and obedience linked?

Answer 3

• The pressure to obey can be reduced if there are non-obedient people present
• In one of Milgram’s variations another person (disobedient confederate) would also play the role of a teacher
• This caused obedience rates to drop from 65% to 10% as the presence of a disobedient ally allowed the naive participant to disobey the authority figure (experimenter) despite the prods, and refuse to deliver any further shocks

Question 4

Outline two strengths of social support

Answer 4

1.) The “Rosenstrasse protest” is real life example supporting the idea that social support can reduce obedience: in 1943 a group of German women in Berlin protested against the Gestapo and demanded that their loved ones (2000 Jewish men and boys) were to be released and even though the Gestapo threatened to shoot them they ignored the threats of violence and eventually won, this suggests that they could resist the pressure to obey because they were in the presence of other disobedient people, therefore adding validity to social support as an explanation of people’s ability to resist social influence.

2.) Further research evidence/support: Allen and Levine looked at whether social support had to be valid or not through an Asch like study where the confederate providing the social support wore thick glasses and said he had difficulty with his vision (so he couldn’t correctly guess the line lengths), this suggests that social support breaks the pressure to conform even if the person providing social support is not seen as credible, therefore increasing the validity and reliability that social support reduces the pressure to conform.

Question 5

What does it mean to have a “High Internal Locus of Control”?

Answer 5

• People with high internal LoC are more able to resist pressures to conform or obey. Compared to high externals, they tend to be more:
• Self-confident
• Achievement oriented
• Intelligent (seek information from themselves rather than others means reduced ISI)
• Have less of a need for social approval (reduced NSI)
• They take personal responsibility for their actions and experiences (good or bad) so they base their decisions on their own beliefs and resist pressures of social influence

Question 6

Outline one strength of the Locus of Control

Answer 6

1.) Research evidence suggests a person’s locus of control can reduce their conformity and obedience: Avtgis carried out meta-analysis of studies investigating relationship between locus of control and social influence and found a significant positive correlation between being external (easily persuaded) and being conformist and obedient, this suggests people who are more external are more likely to be affected by the pressures of social influence than those who are more internal, therefore this research adds validity to the locus of control explanation for resistance to social influence.

Question 7

Outline one limitation of the Locus of Control

Answer 7

1.) People (generationally) may be becoming more external overtime: Twenge analysed data from American locus of control studies over a 40-year period and found that people had become more resistant to obedience but they had also become more external (a higher external locus of control), this suggests that resistant behaviour is not linked to an internal locus of control as people would have otherwise become more internal over time, however it is possible that the results are due to a changing society where many things are out of personal control, this is a problem because it suggests young people may lose their ability to resist social influence; and will be more likely to conform to or obey a destructive authority; it also contradicts the generally accepted assumption within psychology that personality is innate (and does not change over time).