Resisting Social Influence Flashcards
What is a dispositional explanation of resisting social influence?
Locus of Control
Who proposed the idea of Locus of Control?
Rotter
Explain Locus of control.
The extent to which people believe they have control over their own lives. Locus of control is a personality theory.
What are characteristics of an internal locus of control?
-Believe their own fate is determined by their own actions.
-More likely to resist social influence.
-Resist coercion from others.
-More likely to become leaders and high achievers.
What are characteristics of an external locus of control?
-Believe that whatever happens to them is controlled by external factors such as luck or fate.
-More likely to conform/obey to social influence.
-Believe that things turn out a certain way regardless of their own actions.
Evaluate locus of control.
+Supporting evidence from Oliner an Oliner.
People who did not follow orders in WW” (and helped the Jews) were more likely to have an internal locus of control, compared to the 126 who simply followed orders.
-Other factors need to be considered, such as social responsibility.
Disobedient pps in Milgram’s research had high internal locus’ of control. this suggests that other important factors need to be considered that influence an individuals ability to disobey orders.
-Issues with the methodology used to measure locus of control.
Rotter scale, forced choice questions. problem of social desirability bias or pps may not agree with either statement and is forced to choose one. This affects the validity of the measurement of a persons locus of control.
What is a situational explanation of resisting social influence?
Social Support
Explain social support
The presence of other people who resist the pressure to conform or obey. These people act as role models, who show others that resisting social influence is possible.
Explain resisting conformity
Having an ‘ally’ breaks the unanimity of the group and makes an individual more confident to reject the majority position.
Explain resisting Obedience
Having a disobedient role model who resists the pressures to obey challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure.
Evaluate social support
+Supporting evidence from Asch’s line study.
In one variation where one confederate gave correct answers throughout, conformity dropped to 5%. Supporting the idea that having an ally makes it easier to resist conformity.
+Further supporting evidence from Milgram.
He found that when the pps were paired with 2 confederates who refused to go to the full 450V, obedience levels dropped from 65% to 10%. suggesting that if an individual has social support then they are likely to resist the pressure to obey.
