Resistance to Social Influence Flashcards
(5 cards)
What is locus of control?
-Persons perception of self control over own behaviour
-Either high internal or high external
What is high INternal LoC?
-Perceive themselves as having a great deal of personal control over their behaviour and take responsibility for their actions
-What happens in a persons life is because they made that happen
-Resist social influence
-Better MH
What is high EXternal LoC?
-External influences cause their behaviour
-Feel out of their own control
-Approach events with passive and fatalistic attitude
-Take less personal responsibility for actions
-Accept social influence
What are 2 strengths to LoC?
Research support for LoC and obedience
-Repeat of Milgram’s study but also measured whether participants were internal or external
-37% of internals showed resistance
-23% of externals showed resistance
Increases validity of LoC as an explanation
LoC and Conformity
-Those with high internal LoC are less likely to conform to social norms oppose to those with high external LoC
-Avg correlation between LoC and conformity was 0.37 which is statistically significant
This suggests there is a genuine link between conforming and locus of control and that external are more likely to conform than internals
What are 2 weaknesses of LoC?
Contradictory research
-A study sampled American obedience studies across 40 years and found people have become more resistant to obedience and more external
-If internal LoC is linked to resistance then we would expect the population to become more internal not external
This research challenges the LoC and increasing resistant behaviour in external individuals
Methodological problems with LoC
-Uses 29 forced choice Qs which had answers for either agree or disagree which an indiv may not do either
-Also is open to social desirability (own up to mistakes and not brush off the responsibility)
Reduces validity of findings as we cannot be certain it is measuring what it claims to
