Social influence - Resistance to social influence

Question 1

How does social support explain resistance to social influence?

Answer 1

• Seeing others resist social influence reduces pressure to obey or conform, this increases the individual’s confidence
• By either providing a disobedient role model (Obedience) or creating a small alternate group to belong to (Conformity) it can provide social support to help someone resist social influence
• Providing social support can break the unanimity of the groups and challenge the legitimacy of authority of the authority figure

Question 2

How does Locus of control explain resistance of social influence?

Answer 2

• Rotter suggests that a factor of personality is the persons sense of what controls their lives
• This can be measured on a scale ranging from a high internal to a high external locus of control
• Someone with a high internal LOC feels that their own actions control their lives, they also feel that they have responsibility for their own actions and that these actions dictate the events in their lives. They are also less concerned with social approval
• Someone with a high external LOC feel their lives are controlled by external forces, such as others, fate or the government
• Most people are near the middle of the scale
• A high internal locus of control results in an ability to resist pressure to conform or obey

Question 3

How did Holland’s study support the theory that LOC effects resistance to social influence?

Answer 3

• Holland conducted a replication of Milgram’s experiment
• Participants were assessed for LOC
• 37% of those with an internal LOC refused to continue to the highest shock level
• Whereas 23% of those with an external LOC refused to continue to the highest shock level

Question 4

How did Asch’s unanimity variation study show how social support can effect resistance to social influence?

Answer 4

• Asch’s unanimity variation showed that with social support, conformity dropped significantly, from 32% to just 5.5%
• This shows that with a dissenter that breaks the unanimity of the group it can provide social support and lead to resistance to social influence
• However the fact that even with social support, people still give the wrong answer on an unambiguous task in 5.5% of trials suggests that there are some people with a dispositional inability to resist social influence

Question 5

How do the experiments conducted by Asch, Milgram and Zimbardo suggest that people are able to resist social influence?

Answer 5

• 24% of people did not conform in any part of Asch’s line study
• 35% of individuals refused to obey the experimenter and shock up to 450v in Milgram’s research
• Most of the guards refused to conform to the social role of aggressive guard in Zimbardo’s study
• This suggests that many people are able to resist social influence

Question 6

How did Spector’s study support Rotter’s theory that a persons locus of control effects their ability to resist social influence?

Answer 6

• Spector’s conducted an experiment with 157 students
• The students were assessed according to Rotter’s LOC as well as assessed for NSI and ISI tendencies
• The findings showed a correlation between an external locus of control and those influenced by NSI (But not ISI)

Question 7

How do Milgram’s variation studies show that situational pressures can also affect a persons ability to resist social influence?

Answer 7

• LOC is a dispositional explanation for resistance however others have found situational pressures are critical to whether an individual is able to resist social influence or not
• These situational variables can include: Location, presence of social support and uniform