Social Influence: Resistance of social influence Flashcards
What are the 2 explanations for resistance to social influence?
Social support
Locus of control (LoC)
What’s resistance to social influence?
The ability of people to withstand social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority.
Define social support
The perception that an individual has assistance available from other people, and that they are part of a support network.
Define locus of control
the extent of which a person believes that have control over their own behaviour.
How does social support effect conformity?
Breaks the unanimous position of the majority as it suggests that there’s other legitimate responses.
What is the supporting evidence for the social support? (conformity)
Variation of Asch’s line study the real ppt saw another confederate disagreeing with the majority, which caused conformity to drop sharply.
The confederate provided the ppt with social and moral support even if they’re not giving the right answer.
How does social support effect obedience?
The pressure to obey can be reduced if there’s another person who is also seen to disobey. Disobedient peers therefore act as role models on which the individual can model their own behaviour.
What is the supporting evidence for the social support?
A further variation of Milgram’s study showed the real ppt to be part of a group of 3 testing the learner.
The other two ppts were confederates, one after the other they refused to continue shocking the learner and withdrew.
The rate of obedience dropped from the previous 65% to just 10%. This shows that social support can be a factor that leads to resistance to obedience.
What are the 2 types of locus of support?
-Internality/internal locus of control
-Externality/ external locus of control
What is internality/internal locus of control
When individuals tend to believe they’re responsible for their behaviour and experience rather than events outside of their control.
What is externality/ external locus of control
When individuals tend to believe that their behaviour and experiences are caused by events outside of their control.
How does high internal locus control lead to resistance from social influence?
Individuals with this trait tend to seek info that is useful to them, and are less likely to rely on opinions from others (conformity).
They’re also more achievement-oriented, so are more likely to become leaders rather than followers (obedience).
These individuals are also more likely to resist coercion.
What are the 4 AO3 points for resistance to social influence?
+LoC: supporting evidence
-LoC: may have changed overtime
+Social support: RLA
+Social support: supporting evidence
(+AO3) Who conducted the supporting evidence for LoA?
Avtgis (1998)
(+AO3) What is the supporting evidence for LoC?
meta-analysis of studies of relationships between locus of control and different forms of social influence and the likelihood to conform and found a significant locus of control.
