Resistance To Social Influence

Question 1

What is social support?

Answer 1

The perception that an individual has assistance available from other people and that they are part of a supportive network.

Question 2

How did Asch investigate the effect of social support on conformity and what did he find?

Answer 2

• The presence of social support enables an individual to resist conformity pressure from the majority.
• One variation of his study: Introduced an ally who gave the right answer which reduced conformity from 33% to 5.5%.

Question 3

What is the most important aspect of social support?

Answer 3

That it breaks the unanimous position of the majority.

Question 4

How does breaking the unanimity decrease conformity?

Answer 4

By breaking the unanimity of the majority, the supporter or dissenter raises the possibility that there are other, legitimate ways of thinking or responding. The presence of an ally provides the individual with an individual assessment of reality that makes them feel more confident in their decision and better able to stand up to the majority.

Question 5

Explain social support and resisting obedience.

Answer 5

• Research has shown that individuals are generally more confident in their ability to resist the temptation to obey if they find an ally who is willing to join them in opposing an authority figure.
• Disobedient peers act as role models on which the individual can model their own behaviour.
• Individuals are able to use the defiance of peers as an opportunity to free themselves from having to cause any further harm to a victim as a result of their obedience.

Question 6

Explain how Milgram investigated the relationship between social support ands resisting obedience.

Answer 6

• One variation: participant was part of a team of 3 testing the learner.
• Other two were confederates who, one after another, refused to continue shocking the learner and withdrew.
• Only 10% continued to the maximum shock level.

Question 7

What is locus of control?

Answer 7

• People differ in their beliefs about whether the outcomes of their actions are dependent on what they do (internal locus of control) or on events outside of their personal control (external locus of control).

Question 8

What is a strong internal locus of control associated with?

Answer 8

• The belief that we can control the events that happen in our life.

Question 9

What do people with an internal locus of control believe?

Answer 9

• What happens to them is largely a consequence of their own ability and effort.
• More likely to independence in thought and behaviour.

Question 10

What is internality and what does it mean for people who have high internality?

Answer 10

Internality: Individuals who tend to believe that they are responsible for their behaviour and experience rather than external forces.
- People high in internality rely less on the opinions of others, which means they are better able to resist social influence.

Question 11

What do people with an external locus of control believe?

Answer 11

• What happens to them is determined by external factors, such as the influence of luck or others.
• Have a sense that ‘things just happen to them’ and are largely out their control.

Question 12

What is externality and what are people high in externality like?

Answer 12

Externality: Individuals who tend to believe that their behaviour and experience is caused by events out of their control.
- People high in externality tend to approach events with a more passive and fatalistic attitude than internals, taking less personal responsibility for their actions and being less likely to display independent behaviour and more likely to accept the influence of others.

Question 13

LOC: What do high internals seek which makes them less vulnerable to social influence?

Answer 13

• Seek information that is useful to them and so are less likely to rely on the opinions of others, making them less vulnerable to social influence.

Question 14

What are high internals more orientated to and why does this make them more likely to resist social influence?

Answer 14

• Achievement-Orientated: more likely to become leaders than follow others.
• Spector (1982): relationship exists between locus of control and leadership style, with internals being more persuasive and goal-orientated than externals.

Question 15

What are high internals better able to resist from others and how does this make them more resistant to social influence?

Answer 15

• Resist coercion (persuasion) from others.
• E.G. Simulated prisoner-of-war camp situation, internals were better able to resist the attempts of an interrogator to gain information.
• The more intense the pressure, the greater the difference between the internal’s performance and the external’s.

Question 16

Evaluation: Social Support- The importance of response order.

Answer 16

• Allen & Levine: studied whether the response position of the person providing social support made any difference to a participant resisting the majority.
• One condition: a confederate answered first, giving the right answer, all other confederates gave the wrong answer. Real participant answered 5th (last).
• Second condition: confederate answered 4th, after the other confederates, support was more effective in position 1 than position 4.
• Researchers suggest that a correct first answer confirms the participants own judgement so produces an initial commitment to the correct response that endures even though other group members disagree.

Question 17

Evaluation: Social Support- Support may not have to be valid to be accepted.

Answer 17

• Allen & Levine: looked at whether social support that was not particularly valid would also be effective in helping participants resist conformity.
• One condition: confederate providing support wore glasses with very thick lenses, therefore provided invalid social support because it was a test of visual discrimination.
• Second condition: supporter had normal vision: valid social support.
• Both conditions reduced the amount of conformity but the valid social supporter had much more impact.
• Ally is helpful im resisting conformity but more so if they are perceived as offering valid social support.

Question 18

Evaluation: Locus of control is related to normative but not informational influence.

Answer 18

• Spector: measured locus of control and predisposition to normative and informational influence in 157 undergraduate students.
• Found a significant correlation between locus of control and predisposition to normative social influence, with externals more likely to conform to this form of influence than internals.
• Found no such relationship for predisposition to informational social influence, with locus of control not appearing to be a significant factor in this type of conformity.

Question 19

Evaluation: Locus of control- People are more external than they used to be.

Answer 19

• Twenge et al: Meta-analysis, found that young Americans increasingly believed that their fate was determined more by luck and powerful others rather than their own actions.
• In the studies used in the analysis, researchers found that locusts of control scores had become substantially more external in student and child samples between 1960 and 2002.
• Twenge interprets this trend towards increasing externality in terms of the alienation experienced by young people and the tendency to explain misfortune on outside forces.