Social influence 4 | Explanations of resistance to social influence Flashcards
AO1: What is social support in the context of resistance to social influence?
Social support refers to the presence of others who resist pressures to conform or obey acting as models to encourage resistance.
AO1: How does social support help resist conformity?
The presence of a dissenting peer provides confidence and reduces the fear of rejection making it easier to resist group pressure.
AO1: How does social support help resist obedience?
The presence of a disobedient role model reduces the legitimacy of the authority figure and shows that defiance is possible encouraging resistance.
AO1: What is locus of control?
Locus of control is a personality trait referring to how much control a person believes they have over their behaviour and life events.
AO1: What is an internal locus of control?
People with an internal locus of control believe they are responsible for their own actions and are less likely to conform or obey.
AO1: What is an external locus of control?
People with an external locus of control believe their behaviour is determined by external factors such as luck or fate making them more likely to conform or obey.
AO3: How does Asch’s research support social support in resisting conformity?
Asch’s variation showed that when a dissenting confederate was present conformity dropped from 32 percent to 5 percent demonstrating that social support encourages resistance.
AO3: How does Milgram’s research support social support in resisting obedience?
Milgram’s variation showed that when two disobedient confederates were introduced obedience dropped from 65 percent to 10 percent supporting the role of social support in resistance.
AO3: How does Holland’s study support locus of control in resisting obedience?
Holland found that 37 percent of internals resisted obedience compared to only 23 percent of externals suggesting that an internal locus of control is linked to greater resistance.
AO3: How does Twenge et al.’s research challenge locus of control as an explanation for resistance?
Twenge found that despite people becoming more resistant to social influence over time they also became more external contradicting the idea that internal locus of control leads to greater resistance.
