Having a non-conforming confederate reduces levels of conformity and obedience.
Locus of Control
Internal:
Things that happen are due to the individual themselves.
External:
Things that happen are due to factorsoutside of their control.
Milgram - social support
Obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the participant was joined with a disobedient confederate.
SS - Evaluation
Strengths
Real world support - Albrecht et al (2006) - help pregnant teens resist peer pressure to smoke.
Research support (dissenting peers) - Gamson et al (1982) - People were asked to gather evidence for an oil smear campaign and 88% rebelled as they were in groups.
Who proposed locus of control?
Julian Rotter (1966)
The LOC continuum
LOC is a scale and individuals can vary from high external LOC to high internal LOC.
High internal LOC
Able to resist pressures to conform or obey as they take responsibility for their own actions.
More intelligent and achievement orientated.
LOC - Evaluation
Strengths
Research support - Charles Holland (1967) - repeated Milgrams study with measuring LOC. Found that internals were more likely to not go all the way to the highest shock level.
Limitations
Contradictory research - Twenge et al (2004) - analysed data across America and found that over time ppl became more resistant to obedience as well as more external not internal.
