Social influence

• social support - what is resisting conformity? pressure to conform can be resisted if the are others not conforming
• social support - example of resisting conformity: Asch's research - confederate not conforming may not be giving the right answer
• social support - what does the fact that someone else is not following the majority allow the naive participant to do? be free to follow their own conscience
• social support - why does a confederate not conforming enable the naive ppt to follow their own conscience? the confederate acts a a model of independent behaviour and their dissent gives rise to more dissent, showing the majority isn't unanimous
• social support - what is resisting obedience? the pressure to obey can be resisted if there is another person disobeying
• social support - example of resisting obedience: In one of milgrams variations, obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate
• social support - what is the effect of a disobedient confederate on other participants? their disobedience acts as a model of dissent for ppt to copy which frees them to act from their own conscience
• social support - what does the disobedient model challenge? the legitimacy of authority figure, making it easier for others to obey
• what is locus of control? refers to a persons perception of personal control over their own behaviour
• what is an internal locus of control? people who believe that what happens to them is controlled by themselves
• what is an external locus of control? people who believe what happens to them is out of their control
• What is the LOC continuum? People are not just either internal or external. LOC is a scale and individuals vary in their position on it.
• what are people with a high internal LOC likely to resist? pressure to conform or obey
• characteristics of someone with a high internal LOC: self confident, achievement oriented, intelligent - characteristics of a leader who has less need for social approval than others
• strength of resistance to conformity


  research support
• strength of resistant to conformity evidence: Allen and Levine 1971 found that conformity decreased when there was one dissenter in an asch type study

  T - resistance is not motivated by following what others say but by enabling someone to be free of pressure from the group
• strength of resistance to obedience: research support in role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience
• strength of resistance to obedience evidence: Gamson et al 1982 - found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram because pps in Gamson's study were in groups

  29/33 rebelled

  T - peer support is linked to greater resistance
• limitation of locus of control: not all research supports link between LIC and resistance
• limitation of locus of control evidence: Twenge et al 2004

  - analysed data from american locus of control studies over a 40 yr period

  - over time people have become resistant to obedience but also more external

  - if resistance was linked to internal LOC, we'd expect people to have become more internal

  T - challenges the link between internal LOC and increasing resistant behaviour
• strength of locus of control: research support links LOC and resistance to obedience
• strength of locus of control evidence: Holland 1967, repeated milgrams baseline study and measured whether pps were internals or externals

  findings

  - 37% internals isn't continue to highest shock level

  - 23% externals didn't continue