Resisting Social Influence Flashcards
Two reasons why people can resist the pressure of social influence
Locus of control and social support
2 types of locus of control
Internal and external
Def internal locus of control
A person believes their behaviour is caused primarily by their own personal decisions and actions
Eg internal locus of control
I can determine my future, I am in control
Def external locus of control
A person believes theur behaviour is caused primarily by fate, luck or other internal circumstances
Example of external locus of control
I can’t make a difference, why bother
People with what type of locus of control are able to resist social influence
Internal locus of control
Why do people wirh internal locus of control resist social influence
Because they believe they have control over their own future
A personality trait of people with internal locus of control
Independence, makes them less responsive to others acting as a characteristic to help them resist
People with external locus of control believe their lives are governed by..,
External forces instead of their own actions making them more likely to conform and less likely to resist as they believe it won’t happen either way
4 evaluation points of locus of control
Strength - research support
Weakness - contradicting research
Weakness - limited role of locus of control
Elaboration of strength - research support
- Holland repeated milgrams baseline study and measures which participants were internal and external
- 37% of internals didn’t shock at the highest level compared to 23% of externals
- shows resistance is partly due to locus of control
Elaboration weakness - contradicting research
- Twenge found that over 40 years people became more resistant if obedience but more external in their beliefs
- this suggests that locus of control isn’t a suitable explanation for resistance
Elaboration weakness - limited role of locus of control
- Rotter found that locus of control is only imoortant in new situations
- if an individual has conformed or resisted influence in a past situation, they will repeat the same behaviour when confronted with a similar or identical scenario
- this limits the use of locus of control in explaining resistance
Overall evaluation of locus of control
Loc limited method of explaining resistance to social influence and obedience
Social support def
Is the idea of having an ally or other people that are seen to resist social influence (acting as models) making it easier for others to do the same
How does social support help people resist conformity
The pressure to conform can be reduced if other people are also not conforming as seen in Aschs line study when other ps don’t conform, p less likely to folllow majority
How does social support help resist obedience
Pressure to obey is reduced if another person disobeys
Supportive research of social support can help people resist obedience
Milgrams variations where the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when genuine p was joined by disobedient confederate
3 evaluation points of social support
Strength - supportive evidence
Strength - application
Strength - doesn’t need to be valid to be effective
Elaboration strength - supportive evidence
- aallen and Levine conducted Asch like replication
- when dissenter was someone wirh apparently good eyesight, 64% of genuine ps refused to conform
- when there was no supporter only 3% ps resisted
- positive as these findings support social support is important in helping to resist conformity
Elaboration strength - application
- group of German women in the street in front of nazis demanded their Jewish relatives back
- had social support from each other and the nazis backed down and released the Jews
Elaboration strength - doesn’t need to be supportive to be effective
- research found that support doesn’t need to be valid to be effective
- ie there doesn’t have to be any kind of proof that the individual who is going against the majority is justified by doing so
