AO1

• resistance to social influence

  1. social support
  2. Locus of control
• Social support is the perception that an individual has assistance available from other people, and that they are part of a supportive network
• Locus of control research has uncovered a number of characteristics of internals and externals that have relevance for the study of independent behaviour including:

  • High internals are active seekers of information that is useful to them and so are less likely to rely on the opinions of others for information.
  • High internals tend to be more achievement oriented and consequently are more likely to become leaders and entrepreneurs.
  • High internals are better able to resist coercion and so resist authority figures and group conformity more..
• Asch found that the presence of social support enables individuals to resist conformity. Having even one person who gave the right answer was enough to bring conformity rates down from 36%- 5.5%. This is because it breaks the unanimous verdict of the group.
• Locus of control is where people differ in their beliefs about whether the outcomes of their actions are dependent on what they do (internal locus of control) or on events outside their personal control ( external locus of control)