Resistance to Social Influence

Question 1

What is resistance to social influence?

Answer 1

This means to resist social influence pressures like obedience and conformity

Question 2

What is Social Support?

Answer 2

One way in which people can resist the pressure to conform or obey is if they have an ally, someone supporting their point of view

Question 3

Which of Asch’s variations show a lack of social support?

Answer 3

unanimity

Question 4

how does social support help people to resist obedience?

Answer 4

pressure to obey can be reduced if another person is seen to disobey

Question 5

Asch (1956)

Answer 5

found that the presence of social support enables an individual to resist conformity pressure from the majority.
it made conformity levels to drop from 33% to 5.5%

Question 6

Social support: evaluation

Answer 6

1. research support
2. Asch supports

Question 7

research support for social support

Answer 7

One strength of social support as an explanation for resisting social influence is that there is research support. Evidence for this comes from Gamson who put participants into groups and asked them to produce evidence an oil company could use to run a smear campaign. They found that 88% rebelled against the instruction.
This is a strength as it shows how people are more disobedient when they have peer support. Therefore, social support does explain why people may resist social influence.

Question 8

What is the locus of control?

Answer 8

A persons perception of personal control over their own behaviour

Question 9

What is locus of control measured on?

Answer 9

it is measured on a scale of high internal to high external

Question 10

What is a high internal locus of control?

Answer 10

an individual who believes their life is determined by their own decisions

Question 11

What is a high external locus of control?

Answer 11

an individual who believes their life is determined by fate, luck and external factors

Question 12

Is autonomous state internal or external?

Answer 12

internal

Question 13

is agentic state internal or external?

Answer 13

external

Question 14

locus of control: evaluation

Answer 14

1. Holland (1967)
2. Rotter (1982) in contradiction to Holland

Question 15

Holland (1967)

Answer 15

Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline experiment and found that 37% of those participants who were measured to have a high internal locus of control did not continue to the highest shock, whereas only 24% of participants who were measured to have a high external locus of control did not continue to the highest shock level:
This shows those with a high internal locus of control have a greater resistance to authority

Question 16

Rotter (1982) in contradiction

Answer 16

However, Rotter (1982) suggests our locus of control only has influence in new situations
If they have previously obeyed or conformed to a situation, it is likely they would do so again, no matter whether their locus of control is internal or external