resistance to social influence

Question 1

social support

Answer 1

When someone else supports or agrees with us. Those with social support can be more confident and will not fear rejection or ridicule, therefore it can reduce conformity or obedience.
E.g. in Asch’s experiment, a variation was introduced where one of the confederates agreed with the participant, therefore the confederates were no longer unanimous and this dropped conformity from 37% to 6%.

Question 2

locus of control

Answer 2

Refers to a person’s perception over how much control they have over their own behaviour. Those with an internal locus of control see themselves as in control and responsible for their own behaviour, whereas people with an external locus of control see themselves as victims of events that are outside of their control. Those with an internal locus of control will be more independent and likely to resist social influence, as they take responsibility for their actions and base decisions on their own beliefs, so resist pressures from others and won’t obey orders.

Question 3

AO3 - Holland replicated Milgram study

Answer 3

Holland found that in a replication of Milgram’s study 37% of participants with an internal locus of control resisted going up to 450V, compared to only 23% with an external locus of control. Therefore provides support that those with an internal locus of control can resist social influence.

Question 4

AO3 - Americans more external but resistant

Answer 4

Twinge et al found that over time, young Americans have become more external in their locus of control, but also more resistant to authority. This therefore challenges the assumption that an internal locus of control is needed to resist social influence, and so limits the reliability of these explanations.

Question 5

AO3 - reductionist

Answer 5

Both explanations can be considered reductionist. This is because they focus on individual or situational factors in resisting social influence, and ignore broader influences such as upbringing, culture or norms/values. For example, some individuals may resist due to strong personal principles or political views rather than due to social support or locus of control. Therefore cannot explain resistance in all situations.

Question 6

AO3 - Asch lab experiment

Answer 6

Although Asch’s study provides support for the idea that those with social support can resist social influence, his study was a lab experiment. Therefore, it was conducted in an artificial setting and consequently has low ecological validity, meaning the results cannot be generalised beyond where they were found and cannot be applied to resisting social influence in a real-life scenario.