SOC 18 - Resistance to social influence Flashcards
1
Q
What is resistance to social influence?
A
- Refers to the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority
- This ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by both situational and dispositional factors
2
Q
What is social support?
A
- The presence of people who resist pressure to conform or obey can help others to do the same
- These people act as models to show other that resistance to social influence is possible (e.g. non-conforming individual helps to resist conformity/disobedient individual helps to resist obedience)
3
Q
What is locus of control (LOC)?
A
- Refers to the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives
- Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them (internal locus of control)
- Externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces (external locus of control)
4
Q
What is internal LOC (internals)?
A
They believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves
- They are confident, achievement-orientated, less need for social approval
- Less likely to conform in response to NSI
- Less likely to obey because autonomous and confidence to challenge authority
- Individuals with a high internal locus of control are more likely to be independent
- They are active seekers of information that is useful to them. They are therefore less likely to rely on the opinions of others
- They feel that they control their own lives, so they do not need to be influenced by others
- They are less likely to conform and less likely to obey
5
Q
What is external LOC (extrernals)?
A
They tend to believe the things that happen are outside their control, it is due to chance or luck
- Individuals with a high external locus of control are less likely to be independent
- They rely on information and instructions from other people
- They are therefore more likely to rely on the opinion of others
- They feel that they do not control their own lives, so they do need information from others
- They are more likely to conform and more likely to obey
6
Q
What is an LOC continuum?
A
- People are not just either internal or external
- LOC is a scaled and individuals vary in their position on it
- So, high internal LOC is at one end of the continuum and high external at the other
- Low internal and low external lie in-between
7
Q
Who proposed the idea of locus of control?
A
Julian Rotter
8
Q
What are the strengths of social support as a way of resisting social influence?
A
- There is research evidence for the positive effects of social support
- There is research evidence to support the role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience
- There is evidence that social support can help individuals to resist the influence of a group
9
Q
What research evidence is there for the positive effects of social support?
A
- Susan Albrecht et al. (2006) evaluated Teen Fresh Start USA, an eight-week programme to help pregnant adolescents aged 14-19 resist peer pressure to smoke
- Social support was provided by a slightly older mentor or ‘buddy’
- At the end of the programme adolescents who had a ‘buddy’ were significantly less likely to smoke than a control group of participants who did not have a ‘buddy’
- This shows that social support can help young people resist social influence as part of an intervention in the real world
10
Q
What research evidence is there to support the role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience?
A
- William Gamson et al’s (1982) participants were told to produce evidence that would be used to help an oil company run a smear campaign
- The researchers found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram did in his
- This was probably because the participants were in groups so could discuss what they were told to do
- 29 out of 33 groups of participants (88%) rebelled against their orders
- This shows that peer support can lead to disobedience by undermining the legitimacy of an authority figure
11
Q
What evidence is there that social support can help individuals to resist the influence of a group?
A
- A study by Vernon Allen and John Levine (1971) showed that social support can help individuals to
resist the influence of a group - In an Asch-type task, when the dissenter was someone with apparently good eyesight, 64% of genuine participants refused to conform. When there was no supporter at all only 3% of participants resisted
- However, the study also showed that social support does not always help
- This is because when the
dissenter had obviously poor eyesight (thick glasses) resistance was only 36%
12
Q
What are the strengths of LOC?
A
- There is research evidence to support the link between LOC and resistance to obedience
13
Q
What research evidence is there to support the link between LOC and resistance to obedience?
A
- Charles Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants
were internals or externals - He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (i.e. they showed some resistance), whereas only 23% of externals did not continue
- In other words, internals showed greater resistance to authority in a Milgram-type situation
- This shows that resistance is at least partly related to LOC, which increases the validity of LOC as an explanation of disobedience
14
Q
What are the limitations of LOC?
A
- There is evidence that challenges the link between LOC and resistance
- There is a limited role of LOC
15
Q
What evidence is there that challenges the link between LOC and resistance?
A
- Jean Twenge et al. (2004) analysed data from American locus of control studies conducted over a 40-year period (from 1960 to 2002)
- The data showed that, over this time span, people became more resistant to obedience but also more external
- If resistance is linked to an internal locus of control, we would expect people to have become more internal
- This suggests that locus of control is not a valid explanation of how people resist social influence
