social support and locus of control

• Asch found that the presence of social support enables an individual to resist conformity pressure from the majority. In one of these variations, he found that the presence of an ally who also gave the same answer, majority down from 33% to 5.5%. The most important aspect of social support appears to be that it breaks the unanimity of the majority. It raises the probability that there is other, equally and legitimate ways of thinking or responding. Therefore, individuals may feel more confident to stand up for their opinion. It is also seen as difficult to take a stand against authority.
• Research has shown however, if an individual who can find an ally who is also willing to stand up against the authority and not obey, the individual becomes more confident too. Disobedient peers can act as role models so the individual can then model their own behaviour. The locus of control contributes to resisting or not to social influence by measuring the persons perceived control of their own behaviour. It is measured from ‘high external’ to ‘low internal’.
• . People with an internal locus of control believe what happens to them is largely a consequence of their own behaviour and abilities. External locus of control is the opposite, where they may believe what happens to them is based on luck and it is largely out of their control. Externals, therefore, are less likely to display independent behaviours and more likely to accept the influence of others. Internals are the opposite to this.

   
• Social support was found to be stronger due to the response order.

  Pt were studied in 2 different variations, one a supporting confederate answered first followed by 3 wrong answers. The real pt always went 5th. In the second variation, 3 wrong answer confederates answered first, the supporting confederate going 4th. The support was especially effective in position 1 than in position 4.

  This suggests that a correct first answer which supported the real pt view, produces an initial commitment to the correct response even though the other members disagreed.
• Social support has research support that shows it does help individuals resist.

  Rees and Wallace found that individuals with a majority of friends who drank alcohol were significantly more likely to have engaged in drunkenness and binge drinking over the 12 months. However, they found that individuals were able to resist peer pressure more when they had a friend or 2 who resisted.

  This is consistent with lab-based experiments on social influence and shows social support can decrease the odds of conformity on, for example, drinking alcohol.
• There is also research support for the locus of control from a meta-analysis of studies.

  There was found to be a significant positive correlation for the relationship between scores of internality/externality and scores on measures of persuasion, social influence and conformity.

  This analysis showed that individuals who scored higher on external locus of control tend to be more easily persuaded, influenced and more conforming than those who scores as internal in terms of locus of control.  
• There is research that suggests that there is a historical trend in locus of control with young people becoming increasingly more external.

  A meta-analysis in 2004 found that young Americans increasingly believed that their fate was determined more by luck and powerful others than their own actions. Researchers found locus of control scored had become sustainably more external in student and child samples between 1960 and 2002.

  This trend suggests that children are becoming more external which then suggests that more children will tend to be less likely to resist social influence.