Social Influence - Resistance to Social Influence

• What does it mean by resistance to social influence?

  Ability to withstand social pressure to conform or obey
• What is social support?

  Presence of people who resist pressure to conform or obey can help others do the same

  Act as models to show that resistance to social influence is possible
• How can we resist pressure to conform through social support?

  • If there are others present who aren’t conforming
  • Asch‘s research - confederate who was dissenting didn’t give ‘right’ answer but it enables the ppt to follow own conscience
  • Not following the majority acts as social support and model of independent behaviour
  • Dissent gives rise to more dissent - shows majority is no longer unanimous
• How can we resist pressure to be obedience through social support?

  • Can be resisted if there is another person who is seen to disobey
  • Milgram’s variations - obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when a disobedient confederate joined
  • The other person‘s disobedience acts as a ‘model‘ of dissent for the ppt and frees them to act on own conscience
  • Disobedient model challenges legitimacy of authority figure - makes it easier for others to disobey
• What is the locus of control?

  The sense we have about what directs events in our lives

  Internal LOC - they’re mostly responsible for what happens to them

  External LOC - mainly a matter of luck or outside forces directing what happens
• Who proposed locus of control?

  Rotter
• What are the 2 types of locus of control?

  Internal LOC

  External LOC
• What is the LOC continuum?

  People aren’t just either internal or external

  LOC is a scale and individual positions vary

  High internal, Low internal, Low external, High external
• Which type of locus of control is more able to resist social influence?

  • High internal LOC
• Why are people with high internal LOC more able to resist social influence?

  • They take personal responsibility for their actions & experiences so base their decisions on their own beliefs rather than the opinions of others
• What is another explanation of why people with high internal LOC are able to resist social influence?

  • Tend to be more self confident, more achievement oriented & higher intelligence
  • Traits lead to greater resistance to social influence
  • Less need for social approval of others
• What are the evaluation points for social support?

  • Research support (Albrech) : Teen Fresh Start USA - helps pregnant adolescents resist peer pressure to smoke. Social support provided by older mentor. At end- teens with a mentor were less likely to smoke than a control group of ppts without buddy
  • Research support for dissenting peers in obedience (Gamson) : Ppts told to produce evidence to help an oil company run a smear campaign. Found higher levels of resistance than Milgram. Bc ppts were in groups so could discuss. 88% rebelled against orders. Shows peer support can lead to disobedience
• What are the evaluation points for locus of control?

  • Research support (Holland) : Link of LOC & resistance to obedience. Milgram baseline study. Measured ppts internal or external. 37% internals & 23% externals didn’t continue to highest shock level. Increases validity of LOC
  • Contradictory research (Twenge) : Challenges link of LOC & resistance. Analysed data from American LOC studies over 40 year period. Over this time people became more resistant to obedience but more external also. Supposed to become more internal?
  • So LOC isn’t valid to explain resistance