Resistance to social influence

• What is resistance to social influence?


  The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority
• What is social support?

  A situational factor which refers to the presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey which can help others do the same
• What is the opposite of social support?

  Social isolation
• What was an example of resistance to social influence in Asch’s study?


  Unanimity allowed there to be social support from the dissenter even when they gave the incorrect answer. However, this was only temporary as when the dissenter started to conform, so did the naive participant.
• What was an example of resistance to social influence in Milgram’s study?


  When there was another teacher, there was social support to not shock the learner which increase resistance
• What were the findings of Allen and Levine’s study?


  Independence increased with one dissenter in an Asch-type study. Even if the dissenter wore thick glasses and said he had problems with his vision. The social support of the dissenter made people realise that independence was possible even if the dissenter was not credible
• What were the findings of Gamson et al’s study?


  Higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram’s. PPs were placed in groups and asked to produce evidence to help an oil company run a ‘smear campaign’ to damage another companies reputation- 29 out of the 33 groups (88%) rebelled due to the social support of being in a group
• What is a locus of control?


  A dispositional factor which is a personality dimension (continuum) developed by Rotter in 1966. It identifies people’s perception of personal control over their behaviour
• How to situations influence the locus of control?


  Positive situations lead to more internal locus of control but negative situations lead to more external locus of control
• What are characteristics of a person with high internal locus of control?


  High levels of control in their lives and seek information themselves, rely less on others and are achievement oriented
• What are characteristics of someone with a high external locus of control?


  They believe their life is determined by external factors and are influenced by others
• What did Moghaddam find?

  Japanese people conform more easily than Americans and have a high external LoC which shows that differences in conformity across cultures could be due to their LoC
• What did Spector find?


  Students with high external LoC conformed more than those with low external LoC in situations with more normative social pressure which can prove that LoC is not a factor in situations with informational social influence but is in situations with normative social influence
• What did Blass find?


  People with high internal LoC were more likely to resist authority if they thought the researcher was trying to force/ manipulate them. This could be because they want choice and feel responsible for their actions and so are less obedient