A01

• State two reasons why someone might resist social influence

  1. Social support

  2. Internal locus of control
• Outline what is meant by social support

  The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same
• Define internal locus of control

  The belief that we are responsible for what happens in our lives
• Define external locus of control

  The belief that what happens in our lives is caused by events outside of our control
• Describe how Asch showed evidence for social support increasing resistance to conformity

  The presence of a dissenting confederate decreased conformity from 33% to 5.5%
• Describe how Milgram showed evidence for social support increasing from resistance to conformity

  Seeing a confederate disobey orders reduced obedience from 65% to 10%
• Explain how locus of control is linked to resistance to social influence

  People who have a high internal locus of control are more likely to be able to resist social pressure
• State two traits that a person with high internal locus of control has that helps them to resist social influence

  - More self-confident - don't seek/need approval from group

  - Information seekers - rely less on opinion of others
• Describe the resistance to social support research conducted by Allen and Levine (1971)


  - In an Asch-type task, when the dissenter was someone with apparently good eyesight, 64 % of participants resisted conformity and when there was no social support only 3 % resisted

  - However, when the dissenter had visibly poor eyesight (wearing thick glasses) the resistance was only 36 %
• Explain why Allen and Levine (1971) suggested that social support will only help with resistance if a source is deemed credible


  Resistance almost halved when the dissenter displayed visible challenges in their ability to complete the tasks which suggests that social support will only help with resistance if the source seems credible/reliable