Resistance to social influence

• Resistance to social influence –

  Social support –

  • Resisting conformity is someone who isn’t following the social support majority enabling the naïve participant to be free and acting as a model of independence making the majority no longer unanimous.
  • Resisting obedience is when there is someone else who is seen t be disobedient, shown by Milgrams conformity dropping from 65% to 10%. They may not follow the other people on but will be independently disobedient since they are freed to act via their conscience and challenge the authoritative figure.
• Resistance to social influence-

  Social support-

  S- Albrecht et al (2006) shows the positive effects of social support through an 8-week camp to help teens to stop smoking through having a buddy which made them less likely to smoke than the control without a buddy.

  S- Gamson et al (1982) researched dissenting peers in resetting obedience through being in groups they were more likely to discuss and resist helping the campaign -  29/33 groups resisted.
• Resistance to social influence -

  Locus of control (LOC) –

  • Rotter (1966) found the concept of internal and external control.
  • Internal is when the things happen largely due to the actions of yourself (studying for an exam), and external is when they believe that thing happen outside of their control (did well in an exam due to the textbook being good/bad due to luck).
  • LOC varies due to the position on it like high internal is on one end high external on the other of the continuum, with low internal and external in the middle.
• Resistance to social influence -

  Locus of control (LOC)

  • High internal LOC is more likely to resist social influence/peer pressure since they take responsibility for their actions and make decisions due to their beliefs and thoughts rather than others.
  • High internal LOC is also linked to self-confidence, being achievement-orientated and having higher intelligence – characteristics of a leader and resisting to social influence since they don’t need the approval of others.
• Resistance to social influence-

  Locus of control (LOC)-

  S- Holland (1967) related Milgrams experiment and measured the internal and external LOC – 37% of internals didn’t go to the highest shock, 23% of externals didn’t continue (internals show greater resistance).

  W- Twenge et al (2004) analysed American LOC studies from 1960-2002 – became more resistance to obedience but more external (expected internal).

  W- Rotter (1982) says that LOC depends on the situation since its not in effect in new situations, since if you have conformed/obeyed in the past you’ll probably do it again.