Social Influence : Explanations of Resistance to Social Influence

Question 1

What is social support ?

Answer 1

One reason that people can resist the pressure to conform or obey is if they have an ally, someone supporting their point of view, or at least, in the case of conformity, a dissenter – someone who deviates from the majority, although they may not share the same view or behaviour. This gives the individual social support for non-conformity or non-obedience.

This can be because they no longer fear being ridiculed, allowing them to avoid normative social influence to conform. It also helps them to resist pressure to obey because it is easier to stand up to an authority figure if there is someone else to share the consequences of doing so.

Question 2

What is locus of control?

Answer 2

This refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control the events in their lives. Individuals with a high internal locus of control believe that events result primarily from their own behaviour and actions. Those with a high external locus of control believe that powerful others, fate, or chance primarily determine events.

This means that those with a high internal locus of control have better control of their behaviour and tend to exhibit more political behaviours than externals and are more likely to attempt to influence other people because they are more likely to assume that their efforts will be successful.

Question 3

1 Evaluation of explanations of resistance to social influence

Answer 3

There is also research to support the role of internal locus of control in resistance to social influence. Elms and Milgram (1974) investigated the background of some of the disobedient participants from Milgram’s first four obedience experiments. They found that disobedient participants had a high internal locus of control and scored higher on a scale that measured their sense of social responsibility.

Question 4

2 Evaluation of explanations of resistance to social influence

Answer 4

The supporting research lacks internal validity as it is correlational. Therefore it is not possible to say internal locus of control causes
resistance to social influence. There may be another factor that is associated with locus of control that causes independence. For example,
it may be that certain parental styles lead to high internal locus of control and high levels of independent behaviour.

Furthermore, the research lacks reliability as not all studies support the view that locus of control is associated with resistance to social influence.