Resistance To Social Infleunce Flashcards
(11 cards)
What is one strength of the explanation of social support ?
P - One strength is evidence for the role of support in resisting conformity
E - 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
E - This shows social support can hep young people resist social influence in real-world situations
What is another strength of the explanation of social support ?
P - Another strength is evidence for the role of support for dissenting peers
E - 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
E - This shows how supporters can undermine legitimacy of authority and reduce obedience
What is another strength of the explanation of social support ?
P - One strength is extra support for the social support explanation
E - Only 3% of Allen and Levine’s participants resisted conformity when there was no supporter. But 64% resisted when a dissenter refused to conform. However , only 365 resisted when the supporter clearly had poor eyesight and could not be relied on to judge the lines
E - This shows the explanation is valid because we would expect less resistance when participants believed costal support was not helpful
What is one strength of the locus of control experiment ?
P -One strength is evidence to support the role of LOC in resisting obedience
E - Holland repeated the Milgram study and measured whether participants were internals or externals. 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (they showed greater resistance). Only 23% of externals did not continue.
E - Therefore resistance partly related to LOC , increasing the validity of this explanation of disobedience
What is one limitation of the locus of control explanation ?
P - One limitation is not all research supports the role of LOC in resistance
E - Twenge et al analysed data from American locus of control studies over 40 years, showing that people have become more independent but also more external. This is surprising - if resistance was linked to internal LOC we would expect people to have become more internal
E - Therefore LOC may not be a valid explaination of resistance to social influence
What is another limitation of the locus of control explanation ?
P - One limitation is there limited application of the LOC
E - A lot of studies show that having an internal LOC is linked with being able to resist social influence. However , Rotter pointed out that LOC only significantly influences in new situations. In familiar situations our previous responses are always more important
E - Therefore the validity of the LOC explanation is limited because it can predict resistance in some situations but not others.
What is social support ?
Pressure to conform is reduced if other people are not conforming.
Asc’s research showed that the dissenter doesn’t have to give the right answer.
Simply someone else not following the majority frees others to follow their own conscience. The dissenter acts as a ‘model’
The dissenter shows the majority is no longer unanimous
Why does social support decrease conformity and obedience ?
Pressure to obey can be reduced if another person is seen to disobey.
Milgram’s research - obedient behaviour greatly decreased in the disobedient peer condition (from 65% to 10%)
The participant may not follow the disobedient peer but the dissenter’s disobedience frees the participant to act from their own conscience
A disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of authority figure
What is locus of control ?
Internals place control with themselves. Externals place control outside themselves
Rotter described internal versus external LOC.
internals believe things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves (e.g. doing well or badly in an exam depends n how hard you work)
Externals believe things happen outside their control if they fail an exam they say it was because they had a bad teacher or had bad luck because the questions were hard
What are internals ?
Internals pace control within themselves and things that happen to them are due to their won accord. Since internals take responsibility for their own actions they are more likely to make decisions for themselves and not take them from other pole. They are also more intelligent and confident so have a higher resistance to social influence.
What are externals ?
Externals place control with their environment and anything outside of themselves. Due to this they are more likely to be victims of social influence since they place responsibility in their environment and base decisions of this.
