Social support+locus of control

• What is social support?

  An ally that breaks the pressure, allowing you to go against the majority / defy an order
• How does social support link to conformity?

  • Asch variation “lack of group agreement”
  • 1 confederate gives the other incorrect answer - drops from 37% to 9%
  • 1 confederate gives the correct answer - drops to 5%
  • Social support breaks pressure and gives confidence to give your own answer
• How does social support link to obedience?

  • in a “dissenter” condition, another teacher is in the room (confederate)
  • He refuses to continue
  • Obedience drops to 10% from 65%
  • Support allows people to work on their own conscience - social support models possible behaviour
• Strength of social support - Albrecht

  • to stop pregnant girls smoking, they were paired with older non-smoking buddies
  • They were found to smoke less than a control group (no buddy)
  • Social support has a power place in society to change behaviour
• Strength of social support - Garrison

  • people were placed in groups to create a smear campaign about an oil company
  • 29/33 refused
  • Social support leads to greater resistance
• Strength of social support - Allen+ Levine

  • Asch-like study
  • A confederate went against the majority but wore jokey glasses and complained he couldn't see
  • Conformity still dropped
  • Shows the person breaking the pressure doesn't need to be legitimate, the pressure just needs to be broken
• What is locus of control

  A sense about what directs our lives (what / who do we attribute success/failure to?). This depends on your traits
• What is meant by an internal locus?

  • independent and goal-orientated
  • Will resist social influence (does their own thing)
• What is meant by an external locus?

  • Dependent and fatalistic
  • Not able to resist social influence (goes along with the crowd)
• Strength of locus of control - Holland

  • repeated milgrams study and asked ppts to complete a locus of control questionnaire
  • 37% of internals didn't go to 450v
  • 23% of externals did not go to 450v
  • Internals are more likely to defy an order
• Weakness of locus of control - Twenge

  • over a 20 year analysis of locus of control people have become more independent but external locus has increased
  • If people are more independent then internal locus should increase
  • Suggests the theory lack temporal validity - as independent should be “internal loc”
• Weakness of locus of control - Rotter

  • states that the theory is only applicable in new situations
  • Therefore it is weak/incomplete as is cannot explain all situations