Social Influence - Resistance To SI Flashcards
What are the explanations for resistance to social influence?
Social support
Locus of control
What can social support do?
Helps people to resist pressures to conform or obey when they receive social support
How can social support help an individual to resist conforming?
The individual must identify with the ally and see them as a role model of independent behaviour in order to resist conforming. Furthermore, individuals who have support for their point of view no longer fear being ridiculed, giving them confidence to avoid NSI.
How can social support help an individual to resist obeying?
The ally acts as a model of independent behaviour, which increases the person to resist obedience and be more confident to act from their own conscience
What can social support/having ally’s lead to
A diffusion of responsibility so the individual will feel less responsible if others are acting in the same way because the consequence of resisting is shared
Give the key points for evaluating social support as an explanation of resistance to social influence
-RTS-Albretch, smoking in pregnant adolescents
HOWEVER, the credibility of the lot may affect the likelihood of resisting SI
(In Asch variations, when the dissenter clearly has poor vision, resistance dropped)
-RTS (OBEDIENCE ONLY) in one variation, Milgram’s research the real participant was paired with two additional confederates. These two refused to go on and withdrew from the experiment early in this variation. Participants who proceeded to the full 450 V dropped to 10% from 65%
Describe Albretchs research
-research into helping pregnant adolescents resist peer pressure to smoke
-social support was provided to some who had a slightly older ‘buddy’
-He was found that those had a body was significantly less likely to smoke than those without the buddy
-They support social support as the buddy acted as an ally which gave the adolescence confidence to resist the peer pressure to smoke
Define locus of control
Locus of control is a personality trait which refers to a persons perception of personal control over their behaviour. There is a scale of locus of control with internal at one and an external at the other.
Describe what people with an internal loss of control are likely to be like
-more likely to resist social influence as they believe they control what happens to them and their behaviour
-The behaviour is due to their own personal decisions and effort and they trust their own judgement more than others
-They are likely to remain independent in their behaviour and rely less on the opinions of others
Describe what people with an external locus of control are likely to be like
-less likely to resist social influence
-Believe what happens to them is determined by external factors such as luck or faith and put more trust into the judgement or decisions of authority figures
-take less personal responsibility for the actions and are less likely to remain independent
Give the key point by evaluating locus of control as an explanation for resistance to social influence
-RTS-Milgram’s and Elms, interviewed original ppts and found those with an internal LOA were more likely to refuse giving electric shocks, and those with external went up to 450 V
-RTC- Twenge, analysed data over 40 years, found people became more resistant to SI and became more external when it was expected to become internal
Describe Twenge’s research
-he analysed data from studies investigating locus of control over a 40 year period
-The data showed the over this time span people became more resistance to SI
-also showed people became more external
-This contradicts LOC because if resistance was linked to it, we would expect people to become more internal
-Suggest locus of control is not valid explanation of resistance to SI
