Social Influence - Paper 1 Flashcards
What is meant by resistance to social influence?
Factors that make people resist obedience and conformity
These can all be seen in all experiments so far as Asch and Milgram show that people did not conform or obey just as much as they show people do.
However, there are a few recognised factors
What is the first explanation of resistance to social influence?
Social support
Describe how a dissenting peer can encourage resistance to conformity
Pressure to conform is reduced if other people are not conforming
Asch’s research showed that the dissenter doesn’t have to give the ‘right’ answer
Simply someone else not following the majority frees others to follow their own conscience
The dissenter acts as a ‘model’
The dissenter shows the majority is no longer unanimous
Describe how one other dissenting partner can encourage resistance to obedience.
Pressure to obey can be reduced if another person is seen to disobey
Milgram’s research - obedient behaviour greatly decreased in the disobedient peer condition (from 65% to 10%)
The participant may not follow the disobedient peer but the dissenter’s disobedience frees the participant to act from their own conscience
A disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure
What is the 2nd explanation for resistance to social influence?
Locus of control (LOC)
Who described internal versus external LOC?
Rotter (1966)
What do internals believe?
Things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves (e.g doing well or badly on an exam depends on how hard you work)
What do externals believe?
Things happen outside their control.
If they fail an exam they say it was because they had a bad teacher or had bad luck because the questions were hard
How is there a continuum? (LOC)
LOC is not just being internal or external
There is a scale from one to the other and people differ in their position on it
High internals at one end and high externals at the other, low internals and low externals lie in-between
Explain how people with an internal LOC show greater resistance to social influence
People with internal LOC are more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey
1) If someone takes personal responsibility for their actions (good or bad) they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs
2) People with high internal LOC are more confident, more achievement-orientated and have higher intelligence - traits that lead to greater resistance (also the traits of leaders, who have less need for social approval)
Who researched into LOC as an explanation for resistance to social influence?
Holland (1967)
Avtgis (1998)
Milgram (1974)
Describe Holland’s research
Repeated Milgram’s experiment and measured whether participants were internals or externals
He found that 37% participants didn’t continue to the highest shock level
23% of externals did not continue to the highest shock level
Describe Avtgis’ research
Completed a meta-analysis considering LOC and conformity.
It was found that those with a higher external LOC were more easily persuaded and conformed more than those who did not have a high external LOC
Describe Milgram’s research (LOC)
He noted the background characteristics of participants who took part in the experiment
He recorded the age, martial status, occupation, military experience, educational history and religion
He found that less educated individuals were less likely to resist pressures to obey.
Also, Roman Catholic participants were more likely to obey the experimenter
What are the strengths of resistance to social influence?
Research to support from Holland (1967) that shows people are more likely to obey is they have an external locus of control in comparison to those with an internal.
Avtgis (1998) also supports the idea as shown through a meta-analysis that externals conform more due to them being easily persuaded.
Milgram (1974) also supports the model as Roman Catholics are described as having an external locus of control therefore and they were more obedient participants thus supporting the idea of locus of control.
The Rosenstrausse Protest shows disobedient models as people were willing to join in with others in
disobedience despite the potential costs of performing the action.
Asch (1951) shows that people do not conform at all 26% of the time showing more resistance to social influence.
Milgram (1973) shows that people resist obedience 35% of the time as not all the participants went to 450 volts.
What are the limitations of resistance to social influence?
Other factors may play a greater role in determining behaviour as they have a greater impact on obedience and conformity rates in research such as situational and dispositional factors.
It is difficult to measure whether someone is internal or external in reference to locus of control due to the nature of the test being self-report.
Therefore, we cannot be entirely sure that it has an impact on behaviour.
Locus of control explanations are mainly based on correlational studies therefore it is difficult to establish the cause and effect relationship between the behaviour and personality trait.
