Outline

• One situation in which people are able to resist NSI is when the group's power is reduced by the presence of a dissenter. The presence of a dissenter offers social support and can help people resist pressure to conform. Asch (1951) found that the presence of a dissenter, even if they do not offer the right answer, caused conformity rates to drop dramatically. Social support enables people to be free to follow their own conscience as the other person acts as a model. However, the research also shows that if the dissenter then changed and conformed, the participant was likely to do so as well.
• In one of Milgram's variations the real participant was accompanied by two disobedient confederates. The rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10%. Participants used the defiance of their peers to remove themselves from causing further harm the other person's disobedience acts as a model for the participant to copy.
• Locus of control: refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events in their lives. Locus of control is conceptualised as a continuum, ranging from high internal LoC at one end and high external LoC at the other end, with low internal/external lying between. People with an internal locus of control tend to take personal responsibility for their actions and to feel that they control their own lives. People with an external locus of control tend to feel that their lives and actions are strongly influenced by luck, chance, ather people and environmental factors.
• Internal Locus of Control: Individual believes that his/her behaviour is guided by his/her personal decisions and efforts. These people believe that the outcomes of their actons are dependent on what they do.
• External Locus of Control: Individual believes that his/her behaviour is guided by fate, luck, or other external circumstances. These people believe that the outcomes of their actions are dependent on events outside of their personal control.
• People with internal Loc are believed to have a number of characteristics that make them able to resist social influence:

  1. High Internals are active seekers of information that is useful to them, and take personal responsibility for their actions. Therefore they are less likely to rely on the opinions of others.
  2. High Internals are more achievement orientated and self-confident. Therefore they are more likely to become leaders rather than follow others.
  3. High Internals are better at resisting coercion because they have less need for social approval.