social influence-resistance

Question 1

what is resistance to social influence

Answer 1

being able to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority /not following the orders of an authority figure

Question 2

what are the 2 explanations of resistance to social influence

Answer 2

-social support
-locus of control

Question 3

how does understanding why people resist social influence be put to practical use

Answer 3

it allows us to create social change if we understand why people resist

Question 4

how did people resist social influence in Milgram’s study

Answer 4

35% did not go to 450V

Question 5

how did people resist social influence in Asch’s study

Answer 5

25% never conformed to the incorrect answer

Question 6

how did people resist social influence in Zimbardo’s study

Answer 6

-two guards didn’t conform to their social role and behaved good
-4 guards went on hunger strike

Question 7

how does having social support mean people are more likely to resist social influence

Answer 7

-having a dissenting ally raises the idea that there are other legitimate ways of thinking and behaving
-they no longer have the fear of being ridiculed-avoid NSI
-they feel more confident in their decision-ISI

Question 8

how did having a dissenting ally in aschs study change individuals behaviour

Answer 8

in variation where the confederate gave social support to the genuine naïve participant by by giving the correct answer
conformity dropped from the mean average of 32% to 5%
this shows that social support in the form of a dissenting ally helps individuals resist conformity as they dont have the fear of being ridiculed avoiding NSI
and increases their confidence that they are correct increasing ISI

Question 9

what did allen and levine find

Answer 9

-they wanted to see if the quality of social support altered how much influence it had
-in one condition the confederate had normal vision and in the other he wore thick glasses
-both conditions reduced conformity but the normal vision social supporter had more of an impact as he was a more valid ally

Question 10

how does a disobedient peer change an individual perception about the consequences of not obeying

Answer 10

-a disobedient peer shows that obeying a harmful action is unacceptable
-a disobedient peer shows that disobedience is possible and shows one how to do it
-disobedient models act as social support and reduce the perceived legitimate authority of the person issuing the demand
-its difficult to stand up to an authority figure having others that are disobedient makes the person more confident in there behaviour

Question 11

what are the methodological flaws in Asch’s and Allen’s + levines research

Answer 11

as they were given a trivial task (made up) where there were no consequences for resisting social influence through not conforming
this reduces the ecological validity of the experiment as it does not tell you about resisting social influence through social support in real lie

Question 12

what is a more ecologically valid study of social support

Answer 12

mullen et al

Question 13

what did mullen et al find

Answer 13

when disobedient models broke the law by jaywalking particpents were 44% more likely to jaywalk
when disobedient models werent present 25%

Question 14

what is locus of control

Answer 14

how much a person believes they have control over events that happen in their lives

Question 15

internal LoC

Answer 15

-they have control over there own behaviour/will take responsibility for their own actions
-they are less concerned with social approval which enables greater perosnal-efficacy and self-confidence

Question 16

external LoC

Answer 16

-they believe their behaviour is controlled by external forces eg-luck and fate

Question 17

are you more or less likely to conform if you have a internal LoC

Answer 17

Less likely to conform

Question 18

3 facts about internal LoC MS

Answer 18

-they are active seekers of information so are less likely to rely on the opinion of others
-they are more achievement orientated and are consequently more likely to become leader and entrepreneurs
-better able to resist coercion from others

Question 19

what is some supporting evidence for internal LoC

Answer 19

Holland replicated Milgram experiment and investigated personality factors in the participants that did not obey to 450V
he found that
37% of participants who scored highly on internal LoC did not continue to the highest shock
23% who scored highly on external LoC did not continue
internal people are more likely to disobey showing LoC to be a valid explanation for resistance

Question 20

what did Atgis do

Answer 20

carried out a meta analysis which considered LoC and conformity
he found that those that scored highly on external LoC were more likely to conform than those with a low score
the average correlation between LoC and conformity was +0.37 (closer to 0 than 1 which shows a weak positive correlation) which was statistically significant
-adds credibility as it shows a link

Question 21

what is meta-analysis

Answer 21

researchers gather findings/results from different studies and come to an overall conclusion (numerical)

Question 22

what are some criticism of atgis research

Answer 22

his research is correlational it merely identifies a link between LoC and resistance without controlling for possible intervening variables
-they also use a self-report measure (a questionnaire) so people may show social desirability bias which affects validity
-they also have closed questions which means you have to have forced choice answers which means the data will lack validity

Question 23

what was William and warchal opposing evidence for LoC

Answer 23

Studied 30 uni students who were given a range of conformity tasks based on Asch’s experiment. They were also assessed using LoC scale.
findings
-William found that those who conformed were less assertive but did not score differently on the LoC scale
-this shows LoC may not be reliable and maybe measuring assertiveness instead of LoC