Resistance to social influence

Question 1

What does resistance to social influence mean?

Answer 1

The ability of people to withstand social pressure and to conform to majority or obey authority.

Question 2

What is social support?

Answer 2

• The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey which helps other people do the same. Act as models to show it is possible to resist

Question 3

What does locus of control mean?

Answer 3

• The sense we each have which directs us to events in our lives. Internal believe they are responsible for what happens to them. Externals believe it is based on luck or outside factors.

Question 4

Explain resisting conformity?

Answer 4

• The pressure to conform can be resisted if there are other people not conforming.
• In Aschs research the person not conforming may not be giving right answer.
• Someone not following majority is social support
• The confederate acts as a model of independent behaviour.

Question 5

Explain resisting to obedience?

Answer 5

• Pressure to obey can be resisted if another person is disobeying.
• In Milgrams experiment obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobeying confederate. They might not follow the person but the other person acts as a model and frees him from his conscious.

Question 6

Explain LOC?

Answer 6

Rotter proposed locus of control that people have internal and external.
E.g They done well on the test because they worked had (internal) or they didn’t do well because they didn’t
(external) They done bad because of the textbook or luck of bad questions

Question 7

Explain Low continuum?

Answer 7

• people aren’t either internal or external. Individuals vary position on it. High internal at one end and high external at other. Low is in middle

Question 8

Explain resistance to social influence?

Answer 8

• People with high internal LOC are more able to resist to social pressures or obey. They take responsibilities for their actions and experiences.
• high internal LOC is more self confident and more achievement orientated. Also leads to resistance to social influence as they have own beleifs.

Question 9

Evaluate one strength of social support?

Answer 9

• Albrecht evaluated Teen fresh starts. 8 week program to help young pregnant people stop smoke. They were paired with a mentor older who helped them. People who had a mentor were significantly less likely to smoke than the people with one

Question 10

Another strength for social support?

Answer 10

• Gamson told participants to produce evidence for oil comapny. The researchers found higher levels of resistance than Milgrams. 88% rebelled and this was because of group pressure and this shows peer support can lead to disobedience

Question 11

Evaluate another strength to support LOC and resistance to obedience?

Answer 11

• Holland repeated MIlgram’s experiment and measured wether they were internals or externals. 37% of internals didn’t continue to highest shock level whereas only 23 % of internals didn’t continue. This shows internals showed greater resistance.
• resistance is least partly related to LOC

Question 12

Evaluate one limitation Of LOC?

Answer 12

• Twenge analysed data from American locus of control studies. over a 40 year time period. This showed people came more resistant to obedient but came more external. This is surprisingn as more resistant people are meant to be internal.
• Show locus of control is not a valid explanation for how people resist to social influence.