Resisting social influence

Question 1

Social support- conformity

Answer 1

• Social support can help people to resist conformity. The pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people present who are not conforming. As we saw in Asch’s research, the person not conforming doesn’t have to be giving the ‘right’ answer but simply the fact that someone else is not following the majority appears to enable a person to be free to follow their own conscience. This other person acts as a ‘model’.
• However, Asch’s research also showed that if this ‘non-conforming’ person starts conforming again, so does the naïve participant. Thus the effect of dissent is not long lasting.

Question 2

Social support- obedience

Answer 2

• Can help people to resist obedience.
• The pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person who is seen to disobey.
• In one of Milgram’s variations, the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine ppt was joined by a disobedient confederate.
• The ppt may not follow the disobedient ppts behaviour, but the point is the other person’s disobedience acts as a ‘model’ the ppt can copy that frees them to act from their own conscience.

Question 3

Evaluation: Asch: Role of a dissenter

Answer 3

• Wanted to know if the presence of another, non-conforming person would affect the naïve ppts conformity.
• To test this he introduced a confederate who disagreed with the others.
• The presence of a dissenter meant that conformity was reduced by a quarter from the level it was (dropped to 5%) when the group was unanimous (it enabled to ppt to act independently).

Question 4

Evaluation: Milgram

Answer 4

• In one of Milgram’s variations, the real ppt was paired with 2 additional confederates, who played the role of teachers.
• In this variation, the 2 additional confederates refused to go on and withdrew from the experiment early.
• Percentage of the real ppts who proceeded to go to the full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 10%.
• This shows that if the real ppt has the desire to disobey, then they are more likely to resist the pressure of an authority figure.
• Variations from Asch and Milgram suggest that if an individual has social support then they are likely to resist the pressure to conform or obey.

Question 5

Locus of control- main concept.

Answer 5

Rotter proposed the LOC.
- It is a concept concerned with the internal control vs external control.
- Some people believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves (internal).
- Whereas some people believe that the things that happen to them are out of their control (external).

Question 6

LOC- continuum

Answer 6

• People are not simply internal or external.
• There is a continuum with high internal LOC and a high external LOC (low internal and low external lie between them).

Question 7

LOC- resistance to social influence

Answer 7

• People who have an internal LOC are more likely to resist social pressures to conform/ obey.
• If a person takes personal responsibility for their actions ad experiences then they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs and resist pressures from others.
• People who have a higher internal LOC tend to be more self-confident, more achievement orientated, have a higher intelligence and less need for social approval.
• These personality traits lead to a greater resistance to social influence.

Question 8

Research support: Holland

Answer 8

Holland
- Repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether ppts were internals or externals.
- He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest level, whereas only 23% of externals did not continue.
- In other words internals showed greater resistance to authority.
- Research support of this increases the internal validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance.`

Question 9

Research into LOC: Schurz

Answer 9

• Further research has supported the fact that personality plays an important role in resisting obedience to authority.
• Schurz found no relationship between LoC and obedience among Austrian ppts who gave the highest level of what they believed to be painful, skin-damaging bursts of ultrasound to a learner.
• This is a weakness because it demonstrates that there may not be a link between internal LoC and resisting social influence.
• However, those with internal LoC tended to take more personal responsibility for their actions than externals, this suggests that a sense of personal control (internal LoC) may be related to resistance to social influence.

Question 10

Evaluation of LoC: Limited role of LoC

Answer 10

• The role of the LoC in resisting social influence may have been somewhat exaggerated.
• Rotter points out that LoC only comes into play in novel situations. It has very little influence over our behaviour in familiar situations where are previous experiences will always be more important.
• This point is often overlooked in discussions of LoC and resistance.
• It means that people who have conformed or obeyed in specific situations in the past are likely to do so again, even if they have a high internal LoC.