resistance to social influence

• resistance to social influence

  • to refuse to accept or be influenced by something
  • social support (SS) = having another person on your side
  • locus of control (LOC) = the extent to which a person believes they are in control of life
• resisting conformity (SS)

  • dissenting peer
  • pressure to conform is reduced if other people are not conforming
  • Asch's research = showed that the dissenter doesn't have to give the 'right' answer
  • simply someone else not following the majority frees others to follow their own conscience - the dissenter acts as a 'model'
  • the dissenter shows the majority is no longer unanimous
• resisting obedience (SS)

  • obedience is reduced by one other dissenting partner
  • pressure to obey can be reduced if another person is seen to disobey
  • Milgram's research = obedient behaviour greatly decreased in the disobedient peer condition (form 65% to 10%)
  • the participant may not follow the disobedient peer but the dissenter's obedience frees the participant to act from their own conscience
  • a disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure
• strength = evidence for role of support in resisting conformity (SS)

  • in a programme to help pregnant adolescents to resist pressure to smoke, social support was given by an older 'buddy'
  • these adolescents were less likely to smoke at the end of the programme than a control group who didn't have a buddy
  • shows social support can help young people resist social influence in real-world situations
• strength = evidence for role of support for dissenting peers (SS)

  • groups were asked to give evidence for an oil company to use in a smear campaign
  • 29/33 groups rebelled against orders
  • shows how supporters can undermine legitimacy of authority and reduce obedience
• extra evaluation = social support explanation (SS)

  • only 3% of Allen and Levine's participants resisted conformity when there was no supporter but 64% resisted when a dissenter refused to conform
  • BUT = only 36% resisted when the supporter clearly had poor eyesight and could not be relied on to judge the lines
  • shows the explanation is valid because we would expect less resistance when participants believed social support was not helpful
• internal vs external LOC (LOC)

  • Rotter described the difference between internal and external LOC
  • internals = place control with themselves
  • believe things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves
  • eg doing well/badly in an exam depends on how hard you work
  • externals = place control outside themselves
  • believe things happen outside their control
  • eg = if they fail an exam they say it is because they had a bad teacher or had bad luck because the questions were hard
• LOC is a continuum (LOC)

  • LOC is not just being internal or external = there is a scale from one to the other and people differ in their position on it
  • high internals at one end, high externals on the other - low internals/externals lie in the middle
• internals show greater resistance to social influence (LOC)

  • if someone takes personal responsibility for their actions (good or bad) they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs
  • people with high internal LOC are: more confident, more achievement-oriented, have higher intelligence
  • these traits lead to greater resistance (also traits of leaders, who have less need for social approval)
• strength = evidence to support role of LOC in resisting obedience (LOC)

  • Holland = repeated the Milgram study and measured whether participants were internals or externals
  • 37% of internals didn't continue to highest shock level (showed greater resistance)
  • only 23% of externals didn't go to highest
  • => resistance partly related to LOC, increasing validity of this explanation of disobedience
• limit = not all research supports role of LOC in resisting (LOC)

  • Twenge et al = analysed data from American LOC studies over 40 yrs - showing that people have become more independent but also more external
  • this is surprising = if resistance was linked to internal LOC we would expect people to have become more internal
  • => LOC may not be a valid explanation of resistance to social influence
• extra evaluation = limited role of LOC (LOC)

  • numerous studies showed that having an internal LOC is linked with being able to resist social influence
  • BUT = Rotter pointed out that LOC only significantly influences behaviour in new situations
  • in familiar situations our previous responses are always more important
  • => validity of LOC explanation is limited because it can only predict resistance in some situations