SOC INF - resistance - topic 6

social support

the precence of people who resists conforming or obeying can help other to do the same

- conformity is reduced by a dissenting peer and the effect isnt long lasting
- obedience is reduced by one other dissenting partner. the dissenters disobedience frees the individual to act from their own conscience.

social support - asch conformity

- asch found that conformity reduced to 5.5% when one of the confederates gave a different answer to the rest of the group

- social support breaks the unanimous position of the majority

social support - milgram obedience

- obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the ppt was joined by a disobedient confederate
- indecent beh increased from 35% to 90% in the disobedient peer condition

- people are more confident to resist obedience if they can find an ally who is willing to join them

the rosenstrasse protest

- german wifes who intermarried jews that successfully freed them from concentration camps in 1943.
- women stood with gestapo agents and demanded the freeing of their men even after being threatened
- one woman commented that 'normally people were afraid to show dissent, but on the street they knew they were among friends because they were risking death together' (Stoltzfus, 1996).

locus of control

- the sense we have about what directs our events in life

rotter:
- internal loc believes that they are mostly responsible to what happens to them
- external loc believes that things happen without their own control

- on a continuum

internal loc conforming

- if someone takes personal responsibility for their actions thy are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs
- people with high internal. loc are more self-confident and less need for social approval so more resistance to social influence

SS EVAL - resistant to conformity

- independent increased with one dissenter in an asch type study even if the dissenter wore thick glasses and said he had problems with his vision
- resistance isnt motivated by following what someone else says but enables someone to be free from the pressures of the group

SS EVAL - resistance of obedience

- Gamson found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram. This was probably because they were in groups.
- had to produce evidence to help an oil company run a 'smear campaign'
- 29 out of 33 groups of participants (88%) rebelled.

LOC EVAL - resistance to obedience

- holland repeated milgrams study and measured whether ppts were internal or external
- 37% of internails didnt continue to the highest shock level
- only 23% of externals didn't continue

LOC EVAL - may be exaggerated

- loc is only important in new situations as it has little influence in familiar situations where previous experiences are always more important
- loc can only explain a limited range of situations in which people might resist social influence