Social Influence: Resisting social influence Flashcards
What is resisting social influence?
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.
What % of ppts resisted SI on every trial of Asch’s study?
25%
What % of Milgram ppts showed some resistance to SI?
35%
To try to explain why people resist social influence we have to look at two areas
1 - Situational factors → i.e., social support
2 - Dispositional factors → i.e., Internal Locus of Control (ILoC)
(COMMON MISTAKES = not Locus of Control,
and not a high locus of control)
Explain social support as an explanation of resisting SI- give an example of Asch
Situations where you have social support from another non-conformist promotes RSI.
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- less anxiety
For example: Asch’s found that when unanimity was broken and the Pt was given some social support conformity dropped to 5.5%. This could be because they will not stand out from the crowd as much and subsequently do not encounter such high levels of anxiety.
In addition, social support creates a diffusion of responsibility where the more people RSI, the less severe the consequences on each individual
Give an example of social support resisting social influence and an example from Milgram
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.
E.g.Milgram’s variation ‘disobedient stooge’ ……real Pt had 2 fellow teachers alongside them (actors). Here, one of the teachers refused to give any further shocks at 150v and the second refused at 210v. Only 15% of Pt’s (6) continued to the top voltage of 450v. This could be because just one or two disobedient people make you question authority more and shifts them back to their AUTONOMOUS STATES.
In addition, social support creates a diffusion of responsibility where the more people RSI, the less severe the consequences on each individual
Evaluation resistance to social influence: alternative explanations
In addition, the social support explanation of resisting social influence may be incomplete as there may be Alternative explanations for RSI, which may be deemed as a better explanation for RSI. A more comprehensive explanation may suggest that in certain situations some people with specific personality characteristics (e.g. having an internal locus of control) are more likely to resist social influence than others when given an element of social support.
This limits social support as an explanation as not all people resist conforming when there is social support, and therefore an internal locus of control can explain this i.e. a personality factor.
Evaluation resistance to social influence: research from Asch
A strength of social support as an explanation for why people resist social influence (RSI) is that there is research to support the explanation. For example in one of Asch’s variation studies, it was found that when the participant was offered social support the conformity rate dropped from ______ to_______
This implies that……..
Evaluation resistance to social influence: reductionist
The social support explanation can be seen as reductionist. Despite some studies showing social support can affect resisting social influence, SOME PEOPLE STILL conform/obey, which means the explanation overlooks individual differences.
For example 15% of people still obeyed in Milgram’s study where 2 other Pt’s refused to obey.
This suggests that……this explanation cannot be used as a sole explanation for resisting social influence as there will still be some who obey
Evaluation resistance to social influence: applications
One strength is the practical applications of this explanation.
By knowing about this research people may be able to avoid situations that could cause negative social influences by finding themselves a partner who also wants to resist the social influence.
For example……. those who share similar beliefs about common goals will gravitate towards each other in a conformity situation.
This means that the explanation has been useful to society because……it can explain many aspects of social behaviour within various everyday situations
Define Locus of control
An individual difference in our personalities is our Locus of Control.
This is the extent to which we think we have control over our own behaviour as measured by a questionnaire.
How does internal LOC relate to resisting social influence?
1 - 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.
2 - 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.
3 - High ILoC’s tend to be 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.
4 - As they see themselves in more control of a situation, they see themselves as having more free choice in whether to conform /obey, so are less likely to enter the agentic state and hence RSI to a greater extent.
Evaluation of internal locus of control explanation: research from spector
A strength of the Internal Locus of Control (ILoC) explanation for why people conform is that there is research to support the explanation.
There is more convincing supporting evidence that having an internal LoC encourages independent behaviour, Spector investigated locus of control and conformity in 157 students, and found that those who score higher on external LoC were more easily persuaded and likely to conform in situations that produced normative social influence.
This means the more INTERNAL your LoC the easier it is to resist social influence as people are less influenced by people and events around them.
Evaluation of internal locus of control explanation: theoretical limitation
One theoretical limitation of the role of LOC in resisting social influence is that it may have been exaggerated.
Rotter 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.
This suggests… a theoretical flaw with ILoC and its application to day-to-day life.
Evaluation of internal locus of control explanation: contradictory evidence
CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE
One negative is that there is research that does not support the link between ILoC and resisting social influence.
Twenge et al (2004) 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.
This suggests that… in the modern day, the link between ILoC and RSI may be overstated.
