Social Influence - Resisting Social Influence

Question 1

Resistance to social influence

Answer 1

• Ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority
• Influenced by situational + dispositional factors

Question 2

Social support - Conformity

Answer 2

• Presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same - individuals act as models to show others it is possible
• Asch - 25% never conformed
• 66% resisted when 33% conformed
• When one confederate gave a different wrong answer - dropped to 9%
• When one confederate gives correct answer - dropped to 5.5
• Milgram - 35% didn’t obey + resisted

Question 3

Social support - Obedience

Answer 3

• If someone else is disobeying then the pressure to obey becomes less
  Milgram:
• Obedience rate dropped from 65% to 10% when real ppt joined by disobedient confederate
• Ppt may not follow the models behaviour directly, but aren’t doing what the authority figure is telling them - act on their own free will

Question 4

Rotter - Locus of Control

Answer 4

Internal Locus of Control:
- Things that happen to you are controlled by yourself, you take responsibility, you believe you are in charge of your destiny

External Locus of Control:
- The things that happen to you are out of your control, you don’t take responsibility, you believe in luck and external factors affecting your life

Question 5

Locus of Control and resisting social influence

Answer 5

Higher Internal:
- More likely to resist pressures to conform or obey
- Take personal responsibility for their actions and will base their decisions on their own beliefs
- Tend to be more self-confident, achievement orientated, less need for social approval

Higher External:
- More likely to conform or obey to social pressures
- Do not take responsibility for their actions
- Less confident, look to others for leadership, struggle to make decisions

Question 6

Research around Locus of Control

Answer 6

Supporting:
- Holland - repeated Milgram’s study, measured whether ppts were internals or externals
- 37% of internals did not continue to highest shock level
- 23% of externals did not continue

Against:
- Twenge et al - analysed data from American obedience studies over 40 years
- People have become more resistant to obedience but more external