Social Support And Locus Of Control

Question 1

What is resistance to social influence?

Answer 1

The ability of people to withstand social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey an authority

Influenced by situational and dispositional factors.

Question 2

What role does social support play in resisting social influence?

Answer 2

The presence of at least one ally who resists pressures to conform or obey helps others to do the same

It breaks the unanimity of the majority and reduces group pressure.

Question 3

What effect does one person refusing to conform have on a group?

Answer 3

It breaks the unanimity of the majority, reducing the power of group pressure

This makes it easier for others to resist.

Question 4

How do disobedient models influence resistance to authority?

Answer 4

They demonstrate that resistance to obedience is possible through modeling processes

This encourages others to feel they can disobey authority figures.

Question 5

What is the impact of social support on an individual’s confidence?

Answer 5

It strengthens the individual’s confidence to feel they could successfully disobey an authority figure

This promotes a sense of autonomy in decisions and actions.

Question 6

Fill in the blank: Resistance to social influence allows individuals to act in accordance with their own _______.

Answer 6

[beliefs and morals]

Question 7

True or False: Social support can decrease an individual’s ability to resist social influence.

Answer 7

False

Social support actually enhances the ability to resist.

Question 8

Research support by Asch for social support explanation

Answer 8

In the variation where one confederate(a dissenter)went against the majority and gave the correct line length,conformity dropped (naive participants) dropped to 5.5% and when the confederate (the dissenter)went against the other confederates to give an alternative response, conformity dropped to 9%
Suggest unanimous majority mean it can be very hard to resist the pressure to conform
However when we have a break in there unanimity of the majority broken by the dissenter and we have an ally from the majority(the dissenter) we have social support making it easier to resist social pressures to conform.

Question 9

Milgrims support

Answer 9

Variation where naive participants watched to confederates successfully ‘disobey’(receiving social support)
Obedience rates dropped 10% so someone disobeying helps gain confidence in own beliefs/values in another enabling them to be less likely to conform
So helps to explain resistance to social influence and has real life examples to back it up

Question 10

Limitation-variations still showed some levels of conformity

Answer 10

Still conformity obedience shown by a small number of participants
May indicate certain individual differences in people’s personality traits making them more likely to obey/conform despite the presence of social support or (others) modelling dissent
Individuals differences may be more authoritarian personality,whereby they believe obedience must be performed and may feel resentment/hostility to the dissenters
Making them even less likely to resistance obedience/greater external locus of control