Resisting Social Influence Flashcards
General idea of resisting conformity
People who have ability to resist or withstand social pressure to obey an authority figure or conform to the influence e of a majority they can sometimes withstand social influence and remain independent
What is locus of control
How much a person believes that they have control over their action and behaviour this is a dispositoonal explanation as it identifies a personality dimension
It is measured on a continuum and on an individual will either have internal or external locus of control and their socirw will fall between the extremes
What did Ritter propose
That individuals with an internal locus of control would be better at resisting social pressures and act independently as they feel in control of the situation and they have the choice to obey or not conform or not they are less concerned with the social approval of others do will not conform to win approval
A strength of locus of control is resisting obedience
There is supporting evidence
Elms snd milgrams investigates disobedient participants through follow up interviews and found thatdisobedient participants had high internal locus of control so loc is an important factor in the ability to disobey or not conform
Also the rescuers of the Jews from the nazi were compared to the non rescuers and found that the rescuers had high internal locus of control
This provides real life evidence for individuals who have internal locus of controlmore likely to disobey or not conform
Supporting evidence
Avtgis et al conducted a meyanalysis on conformity experiment such as asch they found that those who scored higher on external locus of control were more likely to conform the. Those who scored lower
Method used to measure locus of control can be criticised
Locus of control has been assessed using the rotter scale which was a 23 list item forced choice scale this consists of pairs of statement and for each item the respondent is asked to indicate which of the two statement most closely fits with their brief
There is a problem with social desirability bias where respondents answer to look more better to please the researcher this would then cast doubt on the validity of those categorised as low locus of internal control Bcos ppl would try to look like internal locus of control decreasing the validity
What is social support
The presence of other people who resist pressure to conform or obey and therefore help others to do the same as them
Social support and resisting obedience
The presence of support from someone makes it easier to resist social pressures individuals feel more confident in their own decision and more confident to resist majority and to conform
Having an ally who share your views breaks the unanimity of the group and once unanimity is broken people behave different and resist conformity
Social support and resisting obedience
The presence of other people who disobey disobedient role model can serve to reduce obedience it’s often difficult to disobey authority because the obedience of others make even harmful objects appear acceptable
When another person disobeys challenge the legitimacy of the authority figure they act as a role model for the observer to copy empowering them to disobey
Supporting evidence resisting conformity
Asch found that having social support helps an individual resist conformity pressure for the majority the researchers found that conformity dropped drastically to 5.5% when one ally confederate gave an answer that was different to the other confederates and do resisted majority
This support the idea of social role as unanimity was broken so easier to resist the majority and are less likely to fell ridiculed for going against majority
Supporting evidence resisting obedience
One variation in milgrams experiment the participant was one of a team of three testing the learner the presence of the two disobedient confederates onthsi variation who refused to continue shocking learner was sufficient to encourage disobedient when confederate teachers refused to continue shocking obedience only 10% continued to the max 450 volts
This support the idea of social support as it shows when a person acted as a disobedient role model it decreased the rate of obedience form 65-10% have a liberated effect as they had a role model and social support so felt more empowered to disobey
