Social Influence: Resistance To Social Influence Flashcards
What is Locus of control?
Locus of control provides a dispositional explanation for resisting social influence as it concerns aspects of a persons personality rather than their social situation. It concerns to what extent people perceive themselves as being in control of their own lives.
What is an External Locus of Control?
When individuals do not perceive themselves as accountable for the things that happen to them and tend to blame them on external factors (e.g fait or luck), other people (e.g governments of doctors) and believe the world is too complex to predict.
What is Internal Locus of Control?
When people perceive themselves as responsible/accountable for their own actions rather than believing it is a result of external factors
What did Rotter propose about people with external verses internal locus’ of control?
Rotter proposed that people with an internal locus of control are better at resisting social pressure to conform or obey, perhaps because they feel responsible for their actions and therefore have the necessary free will to resist the pressures of external social influence e.g., the behaviour of a majority (conformity) and the orders of an authority figure (obedience).
What is Social Support?
Refers to the presence of more than one person who resist pressures to conform or obey.
How do you resist conformity?
A dissenting (opinions different to others) voice provides social support by breaking the unanimity of the majority. Once broken, the power of normative social influence is significantly reduced, meaning individuals no longer feel the pressures to conform.
Why do you individuals resist obedience?
The presence of a disobedient peer provides social support by acting as a role model and teaching others:
- That disobedience is possible
(i.e people may not have considered disobedience as an option)
- How to disobey
(i.e how to politely refuse)
- The actual consequences of disobedience aren’t less severe than initially expected
(I.e reducing binding factors such as fear of being perceived as rude)
Why does Locus of control offer a more limited explanation for resisting social influence than social support?
Social psychologists tend to view the social situation as paramount (most important) in explanations of social behaviour whereas personality is considered as a moderating factor. It is less significant in ‘strong’ social situations compared to ‘weak’ social situations. This means that locus of control (a personality variable) may play a less significant role in explaining resistance to social influence then explanations that focus on the social situation. Therefore researchers might first look to situational factors such as presence of social support to explain resistance of social influence. After this, they might consider locus of control as an
explanation for individual differences in people’s ability to resist within a particular social situation (e.g., where there is or isn’t social support).
What research support is there for the role of social support in resisting conformity?
In Asch’s baseline study into conformity, 36.8% of participants responses conformed with the majority’s obviously wrong answer to the line judgment task. This dropped to 25% when Asch introduced a dissenting confederate . This is because the introduction of a non-conforming confederate broke the unanimity of the group, reducing the power of normative social influence This shows the importance of social support for resisting conformity as the introduction of a non conforming confederate broke the unanimity of the group thus reducing the power of NSI. However not all Asch’s participants demonstrated the same level of ability to resist conformity, this could be explained by their individual differences in external or internal locus of control. However, since Asch’s research has low ecological validity due to the highly artificial experiment it may tell us little;e about how resistance to social influence functions in real life situations.
What research supports the idea that individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist the pressures to obey?
Oliner and Oliner (1998) found that non-Jewish survivors of WWII who had resisted orders and protected Jewish people from the Nazi’s were more likely to have a high internal locus of control than those who had simply followed orders. This supports the idea that a high internal locus of control helps resist obedience. Moreover the study’s high ecological validity strengthens its support for locus of control as an explanation for resisting social influence given the study was conducted on a real life situation means the research may help reveal how locus of control operates in helping g people resist real world situations of obedience.
