Social Influence-Resistance To Social Influence Flashcards
Social support-
Social support/resisting conformity
What did Asch (1956) study find in regard to social support?
Enable an individual to resist conformity pressure from the majority
How much did conformity levels fall by in Asch (1956) study when social support was offered by an ally in the form of a right answer?
27.5% fall in conformity
What is the most important aspect of social support?
It breaks the unanimous position of the majority hence raising the possibility of other equally legitimate ways of thinking
What does the presence of an ally do for an individual?
Makes them more confident in their decision and better able to stand up to the majority
Social support/resisting obedience
What has research shown when someone gets an ally who are willing to join in opposing the authority figure?
They will become more confident in their ability to resist the temptation to obey
What do disobedient act as for individuals?
A role model to model their won behaviour
Individuals were able to use the defiance of peers as an opportunity to remove themselves from having to cause any more harm
What percentage of ppts continued to the maximum shock level (450V) when confederates withdrew one after the other?
Only 10% continued to the maximum shock level
Locus of control
What does “Locus of control mean”?
Persons perception of personal control over their own behaviour
How is locus of control measures?
Along a dimension of “high internal” to “high external”
What does a strong internal locus of control mean?
Belief that what happens to a person is largely a consequence of their own ability and effort
What do high internals tend to display?
Independents in thoughts and behaviour
What do high internals rely less on?
What does this consequently make them better at?
The opinions of others
Better at resisting social influence
What does a strong external locus of control mean?
A belief that happens to a person is determined by external factors (e.g. Influence of other or luck)
How do high externals approach events?
With a more passive and fatalistic attitude
What do high externals display less of than internals?
Less personal responsibility for actions and less independents behaviour
What are externals more likely to do?
Accept the influence of others
Internality and resistance to social influence
Characteristic of internals making them better suited to resisting social influence:
What do high internal actively seek which make them less likely to rely on the opinion of others?
Actively seek information
High internals are “***-Orientated” 🏆
What does this make them more likely to be
A study which supports this?
High internals are “Achievement-Orientated” 🏆
High internals are more likely to become leaders than followers
Spector (1982)
What are high internals better able to resist?
Study that supported this?
Outline?
Better able to resist coercion
Hutchins and Estey (1978) = Stimulated Prisoner of war camp situation
Internals were better able to resist interrogation attempts
The more intense the the pressure, the greater the difference between internal and external’s performance
Evaluation-
Social support- Impotance of response order:
What did Allen and Levine study (1969)?
Whether the response position of the person providing support made any difference to a ppt resisting the majority
What were Allen and Levine (1969) two conditions?
1️⃣ confederate always answered first giving the right answer while the rest of confederates all gave the same wrong answer
2️⃣ Confederate answered fourth after the other wrong-answering confederates
Which condition in Adam & Levine’s 1969 study was more influential?
How was this condition effective?
Support was significantly more affective when right answer was given by confederate in position 1
Confirmed ppts own judgment and produces a commitment to the correct response that endures
Evaluation:
Social support- support may not have to be valid to be effective
Adam and Levine (1971) condition of invalid social supports?
Confederates providing support wore very thick lenses (invalid supports as it was a test of visual discrimination)
Adam and Levine (1971) second condition
Supported had normal vision (provided valid social support)
What was found in regard to the conditions of valid and invalid social supports (A & L 1971)
Both conditions reduced the amount of conformity but valid social support more do
Evaluation-
Locus of control is related to NSI and not ISI
How many undergraduate students did Spector (1983) use when measuring locus of control and predisposition to NSI and ISI?
1️⃣5️⃣7️⃣
What did Spector (1983) find?
What were externals more likely to do?
Significant correlation between locus of control and predisposition to NSI
Externals were more likely to conform in regard to NSI
What did Spencer (1983) find out in regard to ISI?
No such relationship between predisposition to ISI and locus of control
Evaluation:
Locus of control- people are more external than they used to be
What did Twenge et al. (2004) meta analysis discover?
Young Americans increasingly believed their fate was determined more by luck and powerful others rather than their own actions.
What did the mets-analysis show about level of externality in student and child samples between (1960 and 2002)?
Becoming substantially more external
How did Twenge interpret this trend of increasing externality?
Alienation experienced by young people and tendency to explain misfortune on outside forces.
