Resistance to Social Influence

• What are the two explanations os resistance to social influence?

  social support

  locus of control
• What is social support?

  where pressure to Conform/obey is reduced if other people are not conforming/disobeying
• Evidence for social support?

  Asch - conformity study, a dissenter (even if wrong answer) acts as a model to free people
• Evidence for social support - disobedience

  Milgram - obedient behaviour decreased in the disobedient peer condition, from 65% to 10%
• why does obedience decrease with a disobedient model?

  the disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure
• What is locus of control?

  the extent to which someone believes they are in control of their life
• Who described Locus of Control?

  Rotter 1966
• What are the two types of LOC?

  Internal and External
• What do internals believe?

  things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves
• what do externals believe?

  things that happen to them are outside their control, place things down to luck or fate
• who shows greater resistance to social influence?

  internals
• why are internals more likely to resist social influence?

  they take personal responsibility for their actions so are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs.

  More confident, more achievement-orientated and have greater intelligence, these are traits which lead to greater resistance
• Strengths of Social Support?

  Evidence - Asch, Milgram

  Allen + Levine did an Asch like study, found independence increased with one dissenter

  Real Life Application support

  Programme to help pregnant adolescents resist pressure to smoke, one group had a “buddy”, they were less likely to smoke at the end compared to control group
• Strengths of LOC

  Research Support -

  Holland, repeated Milgram and measures if internal or external, 37% of internals didn’t continue to highest shock, 23% of externals
• Limitations of LOC

  Evidence not in support -

  Twenge et al - analysed date from American LOC studies over 40 years, found people have become more independent but more external, it LOC and social influence was linked you would expect people to become more internal

  ROTTER - stated that LOC is only important in new situations, it has little influence in familiar situations