Social influence booklet 3: Resistance to social influence Flashcards
What is definitively resistance to social influence?
The ability for people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority and to obey authority
What is social support and resisting pressure to CONFORM?
-Asch suggests when there’s an ally who says their own answer or behaves their own way (this is a dissenter), it makes others less likely to conform and more likely to resist pressure to conform
-This is perhaps because it breaks the unanimous decision, leaving the participants with social support and as a result they feel less pressure from the majority
What is social support and resisting pressure to OBEY?
-Social support can be used to help explain why people resist the pressure to obey, the presence of a disobedient peer can lead to others resisting pressure to obey
-Might be because it is difficult to stand up to an authority figure, and having others who are disobedient makes the person more confident in their own behaviour.
What are the evaluations of social support as an explanation of resistance to social influence?
😊Evidence to support (Asch disobedient peer)
😊Evidence to support (Milgrams variatiion)
😊/😒 Reductionist (ignores personality)
What are the explanations of resistance to social influence?
-Social support and resisting pressure
-Locus of Control
What is the Locus of Control?
-Another factor which has been said to explain resistance to social influence, is whether they have internal or external locus of control
-Aspect of personality that differs from person to person
Refers to whether we think we control our own behaviour or something else
What is an internal locus of control?
-We control our behaviour, what happens to us is under our control, less likely to obey and conform
What is an external locus of control?
-What happens is determined by external factors that are out of our control, more likely to obey and conform
What are the evaluations of Locus of control?
😊There is evidence to support locus of control (Oliner and Oliner)
😊Further evidence to support locus of control (Holland)
😒There is methodological issues (questionnaire)
What was found in study Oliner and Oliner?
Interviewed non-jewish people who lived during holocaust:
-Compared two groups of people, group 1: protected and rescued jewish people, group 2: did not protect and rescue jews
-They found those who rescued jews had scores indicating internal locusts of control
What was the study: Holland?
Conducted a replication of the original Milgram study, and found that those who were more likely to disobey had an internal locus of control
