Resistance to social influence

• Reasons for resisting social influence

  Social support and locus of control
• Social support for resisting conformity

  Asch - When another individual gave the right answer against the majority conformity dropped to just 5.5%Breaks the unanimity of the group
• Who provided evidence for social support for resisting conformity

  Allen and Levine
• What did Allen and Levine find about the potion the supporting answer was given in Asch's study?


  • Confederate In position one - was easier to go against the majority view compared with confederate in position four
  • Confirms the participant's own judgement - overrides other judgements made by the majority
• Social support for resisting obedience

  • Milgram variation - the participant was in a group of three - two confederates
  • When these two refused to obey only 10% of the participants continued to 450 volts
• What is a locus of control?

  A person's perception of personal control over their own behaviour
• Types of locus of control


  Internal and external
• What does having an internal locus of control mean?


  Believe what happens to them is as a result of their own ability and actions
• What does having an external locus of control mean?

  Believe that events our out of their control - more fatalistic
• Are people with an internal or external locus of control more resistance to social influence?


  Internal
• Why are people with an internal locus of control more resistant to social influence?

  • Less likely to rely upon the opinions of others
  • Tend to be more achievement oriented
  • Tend to become leaders rather than followers
  • Better able to resist coercion from others
• What did Hutchins and Estey find about people with an internal locus of control?

  High internal locus of control people found it easier to resist interrogation in a simulated prisoner of war camp
• People who found support for locus of control

  • Oliner and Oliner
  • Anderson and Schneier
• What did Oliner and Oliner find about locus of control?


  • Interviewed non-Jewish people who lived through the Holocaust
  • They compared 406 people who protected and rescued the Jews from the Nazis with 126 who had not Found that the rescuers scored higher on measures of social responsibility demonstrating an internal locus of control
• What did Anderson and Schneier find about locus of control?

  suggests that internal locus of control people are more likely to become leaders than followers Individuals who attribute responsibility for their actions to themselves tend to assume they can cause certain changes to their environmentThis includes changing the behaviour of those around them
• Who criticises locus of control?

  Williams and Warchal
• What did Williams and Warchal find about locus of control?

  • 30 university students who were given conformity tasks Student assessed using Rotter's locus of control scale.
  • Those who conformed most were less assertive but they did not score differently on the locus of control Implies that assertion may be more important that locus of control to conformity.