Resistance to Social Influence Flashcards
What are the two explanations for reasons for resistance to Social Influence?
Social Support
Locus of Control
How does social support create resistance to social influence?
People are more likely to resist the pressure to conform or obey if they have an ally as social support, someone supporting there point of view.
How does a dissenting pressure reduce pressure to conform or obey?
The social support acts almost as a model and enable there partners to follow there own conscious/opinions
How long-lasting are the effects of social support?
Not long-lasting, the effects are only in action whilst the social support is present, if the social support is removed the effects are lost immediately also.
How does a persons Locus of Control effect there ability to resist social influence?
If someone has an internal locus of control they place responsibility with themselves and so are more likely to resist social influence than people with external LoCs who will seek to place responsibility elsewhere.
What is the scale of internal and external LoCs?
There is a continuum with high internal and high external LoCs at each end, towards the middle is low internal and external LoCs
Who proposed the concept of a Locus of Control?
Rotter in 1966
What are the evaluation points for the explanations of resistance to social influence?
+ Social Support has research evidence - in a variation of Asch’s study with dissenting peers conformity fell from 32% to 5%
+ LoC has research evidence supporting the link between LoC and resistance to obedience, Holland (1967) repeated the Milgram study but measured if ppl were Int or Ext LoCs 37% of internal did not progress to the highest level compared to only 23% of externals
- Role of LoC exaggerated - Rotter suggested LoC only has an influence in Novel situations (not familiar ones)
- Contradictory evidence for LoC - Twenge et al. 2004 found the USA had become both more external and more resistant
