Social influence- resistance to social influence

Question 1

What is RSI

Answer 1

Involves the rejection of social influence to behave in accordance with one’s own internal attitudes, regardless of whether they coincide with the majority.

In other words they resist the pressures to conform and/or obey.

Question 2

What % of Asch’s pts resisted on every trial

Answer 2

25

Question 3

What % of Milgram’s pts resisted on every trial

Answer 3

35

Question 4

What 2 areas do we look at for RSI

Answer 4

situational
dispositional

Question 5

What situational factor do we look at

Answer 5

Social support

Question 6

Why would people resist SI if they had social support

Answer 6

because they will not stand out from the crowd as much and subsequently do not encounter such high levels of anxiety

Question 7

What is locus of control

Answer 7

This is the extent to which we think we have control over our own behaviour as measured by a questionnaire.

Question 8

What is a high internal locus of control

Answer 8

Belief that YOU make things happen
High ILoCs are active seekers of information that is useful to them so they are less reliant on opinions of others and therefore more likely to RSI.

Question 9

Why is a high internal locus of control more likely to RSI

Answer 9

High ILoC’s take more responsibility for their actions, hence they are more likely to base all decisions on on their own beliefs and thus resist pressures from others.

Question 10

Those with ILOC tend to ……

Answer 10

more self confident and achievement orientated and this means they are more likely to be leaders and not followers: they have less need for social approval and hence RSI.

Question 11

Evaluation, research
-Reese and Wallace

Answer 11

P: A strength of social support as an explanation for why people resist social
influence (RSI) is that there is Research to support the explanation.
E: For example Rees & Wallace (2015) found that the social support
provided by friends helped teens resist conformity pressures from the majority.
E: This enables the group to be free to follow their own conscience. The friend acts
as a model of independent behaviour, the PP does not feel alone.
L: This implies that their dissent gives rise to more dissent because it shows
that the majority is no longer unanimous.

Question 12

Evaluation, may not be appropriate for everyone

Answer 12

P: One limitation of the role of LOC in resisting social influence is that it may have
been exaggerated.
E: Rutter pointed out that LOC only comes into play in novel situations, it has very little
influence over our behaviour in familiar situations where your previous experience will
always be more important.
E: For example, when you have obeyed someone in the past, your memory of this event
may lead you to obey again, showing that LOC plays little difference in repeat situations.
L: This suggests that LOC can only be used in a singular fashion, and not for all
situations, making it of limited applicability. For example, those with a high iLOC
take more responsibility for their actions but those who do not, will not RSI,
therefore the explanation will not be the same across everyone

Question 13

Evaluation, research may not explain cause and effect

Answer 13

P: One negative is that there is research that does not support the link between ILOC and
resisting social influence.
E: Twenge found that over a 40 year period people were becoming more likely to resist
social influence but were becoming more external in their locus of control.
E: This means that over time, people become accustomed to behaving in a certain way
based on their prior experience rather than due to their LOC.
L: This suggests that having an internal LOC does not necessarily lead to RSI .This
is because high iLOC are more self confident & achievement orientated.

Question 14

Evaluation, practical application

Answer 14

P: The ILoC explanation can be seen to have many practical Applications.
E: For example, when social support was offered in Asch’s variation, conformity dropped to 6%
E: This enables the naive participant to be free to follow their own conscious, the confederate acts as a model of independent behaviour, the pts does not feel alone
L: This means that the explanation has been useful to society because…

Question 15

What does social support do to conformity

Answer 15

Situations where you have social support from another disobedient person also promotes RSI.
This is because individuals will be more confident when they are not alone.
Also because anxiety had been reduced

Question 16

What is social support and how does it promote RSI

Answer 16

When a minority is given an ally who also disagrees with the majority they are more likely to resist social influence because they are more confident in expressing their own views.

Question 17

Evaluation,