Social Influence(resistance to social influence)

Question 1

Social support -

Answer 1

The perception that an individual has assistance available from other people and they are part of supportive network.

Question 2

Asch idea of social support and resisting conformity -

Answer 2

The presence of social support enables an individual resist conformity and resist pressure from the majority.
- The presence of an ally in who also gave the right answer (also appeared to resist the majority)
- The social support of the ally led to a reduction of conformity from 33% to 5.5%
- It appears to break the unanimous position of the majority group
- It allows them to feel more confident in their decision and are better able to stand up to the majority.
- One of the key reasons why the help of another reduces conformity rates is it allows the need for group social approval to be reduced.

Question 3

Social support and resisting obedience -

Answer 3

Research has shown that individuals are generally more confident in their ability to resist the temptation of obeying if they can find an ally who is willing to join them in the opposing authority figure.
-A disobedient peers act as role models on which an individual can model there own behaviour.
- For example in Milgram’s variations a participant was on a team of teachers of three himself included where one after another refused to continue shocking the learner, their influence played major effects and acted as role models for disobedience for example only 10% continued to 450 volts (maximum shock level).

Question 4

Locus of control -

Answer 4

People differ in their beliefs about whether the outcomes of their actions are dependant on what they do (internal locus of control) or the environment and outside their personal control (external locus of control)

Question 5

The nature of locus of control -

Answer 5

Measured along a dimension of ‘high internal’ to ‘high external’ suggested we would be somewhere between the two extremes.

Question 6

Strong internal locus of control -

Answer 6

We can control our events in our own life, people believe what happens to them is largely a result of their own ability and effort and don’t rely on external forces. People with this rely less on the opinion of others, meaning they are better able to resist social influence. As they don’t rely on external influences to dictate their behaviour.

Question 7

Strong external locus of control -

Answer 7

We cannot control what happens in our own life and is largely derived due to external factors, like the influence of other or something lucky. They have the sense that things just happen to them by chance, they are more likely to display independent behaviour and more likely to accept the influence of other. So they would not resist to social influence and would just conform as they are being manipulated in their environments. They see external influences dictating their behaviour

Question 8

Research has demonstrated the importance of social support in resisting social influence -

Answer 8

Rees and Wallace - Showed that social support provided by friends helped adolescents resist conformity. Individuals with a majority friend group that drank, were more likely to have engaged in drunkenness over the next 12 months. They also found that individuals were able to resist pressures to drink when they had one or two who didn’t choose to drink. Therefore there is evidence from high ecological validity studies.

Question 9

People are more external than they used to be -

Answer 9

Research has shown a historical trend in locus of control, with younger people becoming much more increasingly external.
Twenge meta - analysis found young Americans to believe their fate was derived from luck and powerful other than the their own-self so they had strong external locus of control, these had been seen as common in children and student samples between 1960 and 2002, however this comes from a student background where younger individuals may feel under authority from a figure, which may suggest why and where they are today and there future may still be suggested of them today.

Question 10

Social support support - (get it)

Answer 10

1943, German women protested in Berlin where the Nazi secret police were holding 2,000 Jews hostage and most of whom were married to the women. Despite the threat of opening fire social support of each other and courage the Jews were eventually set free. Disobedient peers gave each individual courage and break the unanimity of the conforming behaviour.

Question 11

Research support of locus of control -

Answer 11

Avtigis - Meta analysis between locus of control and different forms of social influence, showing a significant positive correlation in findings between findings of internal/external and scores on persuasion and resistance, showing higher external LOC were more flexible and conformed due to the environment
dictating them. Vice Versa.