resistance to social influence

• social support is when pressure to conform/obey is reduced if other people are not conforming/obeying . Someone else not following the majority frees others to follow their own conscience and so they may not conform/obey. Examples from:

  • Asch as he showed that others don't have to give the right answer just other wrong answer.
  • Milgram showed that obedience decreased in the disobedient peer condition
• Rotter described internal versus external locus of control. Internals believe things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves. Externals believe things happen outside of their control. Locus of control is not internal or external but there is a scale from one to the other and people differ in their position on it. People with internal locus of control are more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey
• One strength is evidence for the role of support in resisting conformity. In a programme to help pregnant adolescents to resist pressure to smoke, social support was given by an older ‘buddy’. These adolescents were less likely to smoke at the end of the programme than a control group who did not have a buddy. This shows social support can help young people resist social influence in real world situations
• One strength is evidence for the role of support for peers not obeying. Gamson et al.’s groups asked to give evidence for an oil company to use in a smear campaign. 29 out of 33 groups rebelled against orders, much higher than in Milgram’s studies. This shows how supporters can undermine legitimacy of authority and reduce obedience
• One strength of locus of control is evidence support the role in resisting obedience. Holland repeated the Milgram study and measured whether participants were internals or externals. 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level. Only 23% of externals did not continue. Therefore resistance partly related to locus of control, increasing the validity of this explanation of disobedience
• One limitation of locus of control is not all the research supports resistance. Twenge et al. analysed data from American locus of control studies over 40 years, showing that people have bro me more independent but also more external. This is surprising as if resistantece was linked to internal locus of control we would expect people to have become more internal. Therefore locus of control may not be a valid explanation of resistance to social influence