Social Influence

• Resistance to social influence

  When a person has the ability to withstand social pressure to conform to the majority
• Social support

  Support of belief from other people e.g. family and friends. When in presence of someone else who also resists pressure and conformity, gives confidence to do the same
• Locus Of Control

  The extent to which people believe they have control over their own lives
• External LOC

  • Believe they do not have control over their own life and others do
• Internal LOC

  • Believe they have control over their own lives (more confident, take responsibility for actions, less need for approval)
• Research support for Internal LOC by Avtgis (AO3) +

  Meta analysis looking at the relationship between LOC and conformity.
• People with external locus of control (LOC)

  More prone to conformity, more persuadable
• Externals were more easily influenced and conformed more than those with internal LOC
• Research support for Social Support by Reese and Wallace


  Researchers who conducted a study on the effects of social support
• Individuals with the majority of friends drinking alcohol were pressured to do so too
• Individuals were more likely to resist this pressure if another friend also resisted
• This is a strength because it has

  • High ecological validity
• Research support for LOC by Holland who repeated Milgram's study and measured whether participants were internal or external LOC (AO3) +
• 37% of the participants with an Internal LOC did not reach max electric shock level
• What did this demonstrate?

  That Internal LOC makes someone more likely to resist social influence
• Research Support for Social Support in variation of Asch study(AO3) +


  One confederate was instructed to give the correct answer throughout
• When this happened, the conformity rate dropped to 5%
• What did this demonstrate?

  If people have social support for their belief, they are more likely to resist social influence