Social Influence: Lesson 9 - Situation Explanations Of Resistance To Social Influence

Question 1

What is the social support theory?

Answer 1

The situational explanation of resistance to social influence that argues that when one person refuses to conform/obey it makes it far more likely that other people will also resist social influence and refuse to conform obey

Question 2

Social support in conformity (ally)

Answer 2

• an ally breaks the unanimity of the group, and groups are more influential if they are unanimous
• an ally allows independent assessment of reality (regardless of if the ally agrees with the person) and makes them feel more confident in their decision to stand up to the majority

Question 3

Social support in obedience

Answer 3

• a disobedient role model challenged the authority figure’s legitimate authority when it rejects the authority figure’s instructions
• this makes it more likely for people to defy an authority figure

Question 4

Evaluation for social support theory (Milgram) (+)

Answer 4

• only 10% of participants delivered electric shocks all the way up to 450 volts when there was another confederate acting as a disobedient role model (the second experimenter arguing with the other experimenter)

Question 5

Evaluation for social support theory (Asch) (+)

Answer 5

• the number of trials in which conformity took place dropped from 33% to 5% when one confederate acted as an ally to the participant

Question 6

Evaluation for social support theory (resistance without an ally or disobedient role model) (+)

Answer 6

In the original experiments of both Asch and Milgram some participants were able to resist social influence and refuse to conform or obey, even though they had no social support
- suggests that social support is not a complete explanation of resistance and there are other factors to resistance (e.g. personality traits)