Resistance to social influence

• What is resistance to social influence?

  Resistance to social influence is the the ability to withstand the social pressure to conform or obey. It is influenced both by situational and disopositional variables. 
• outline the situational variables affecting resistance to social influence?

  The main situational variable affecting resistance to social influence is social support. Social support is the presence of other people who resist social influence. This increases the ability to resist social infleunce as it models independent behaviour and breaks the unanimity of the majority. 
• what are the strengths of social support?

  research support - asch

  research support - Allen and levine

  lab conditions

  practical applications
• elaborate on Aschs research support as a strength for social support?

  One strength of social support is the supporting research, In a variation of Asch, where a confederate gave the correct answer, conformity dropped to only 5%, suggesting that the participant felt more confident in choosing the correct answer, despite group pressure to give the incorrect answer, when he had social support. Similarly, in Milgram's study, when a participant was paired with two other teachers (confederates) who refused to go on, the number of participants who continue to 450v dropped to 10%.
• elaborate on Allen and Levines research support as a strength for social support?

  Additionally, Allen and Levine in 1971 replicated aschs study and found resistance to conformity increased from 3% to 64% when there was social support. However, if the dissenter wore thick glasses and said he had difficulty with his vision it only increased to 36%. This suggests that social support does help with resistance to conformity but it has to be a valid support for a significant impact.
• elaborate on lab conditions as a strength for social support ?

  Both of these studies use laboratory conditions. Through which, a high degree of control over extraneous variables can be created which ensures they cannot confound the results allowing a cause and effect relationship to be established. Furthermore the standardisation of variables means they can be measured accurately, increasing the internal reliability which in turn increases the external reliability as it can be easily replicated.
• Elaborate on practical applications as a strength for social supporT?

  Albrecht et al. (2006) found that adolescents who had a ‘buddy’ to support them during the Teen Fresh Start USA campaign (anti-smoking) were less likely to smoke than those without a buddy. Therefore, this study demonstrates the impact of social support on social influence with higher ecological validity than previous experiments. Moreover this shows the practical applications of understanding resistance to social influence as adding social support can benefit the mental and physical health of society. 
• what are the weaknesses for social support?

  However, data collected may lack ecological validity as artificial conditions do not reflect real world scenarios questioning the generalisability of the results. This is because we do not compare lines like this on a day to day basis and additionally this task has no particular consequences for the participants. Moreover there is a high risk of demand characteristics as participants may alter their behaviour based on their interpretation of the purpose of the experiment. 
• what are the dispositional factors affecting resistance to social influence? Part 1

  The main dispositional factor affecting resistance to social influence is locus of control, as investigated by Julian rotter in 1966. She found that locus of control is a continuum scale that everyone fits between, with internal and external being at opposite ends.  internal LOC consists of believing that things that happen are largely self controlled. External LOC consists of believing that things that happen are outside of your control. 
• what are the dispositional factors affecting resistance to social influence part 2?

  People with a high internal LOC are more able to resist social influence as they base their decisions off their own beliefs rather than others. They tend to be more intelligent, confident, and achievement orientated which makes it easier for them to resist pressure to conform and obey. 
• what are the strengths of LOC?

  One strength of LOC is research support from Holland in 1967 who repeated milgrams experiment and measured weather the participants were further towards external or internal on the locus of control continuum. It was found that 37% of internals and 23% of externals did not shock to the full 450V, suggesting that resistance to social influence is at least somewhat influenced by locus of control. 
• what are the weaknesses of LOC?

  However one criticism for the theory of resistance to social influence is contradictory evidence. One example is Twenge (2004) who analysed 40 years of data from American LOC studies and found that over time people have become more resistant to social influence but more external. This suggests LOC is not a comprehensive explanation of resistance to conformity and obedience.