resistance to social influence

resistance meaning

ability to withstand social pressure to conform to the majority or obey authority. this is influenced by situational and dispositional factors

situational and dispositional factors

situational- social support: theory that suggests that behaviour is caused by the situation an individual finds themselves in

dispositional- locus of control (LOC): a theory that behaviour is caused due to something to do with the person eg. personality traits

social support

• (situational factor) presence of others who resist pressure to conform or obey and can help others do the same

• they are dissenters, acting as models to show others resistance to social influence if possible

• aka. defiance/ non-conformity

• majority is more likely to disobey if there is a disobedient role model

4 stages of resistance

1. illusion of unanimity: people are more likely to obey when everyone else is obeying

2. disobedience shatters the illusion: breaking the illusion of unanimous agreement, shows alternative perspectives

3. seeds of doubt: others question authority, motives, shifts the perspective and authority no longer seen as unquestionable

4. empowerment through example: others feel confident to disobey and stand up for what they believe in

Asch social support

when a confederate stated correct length throughout, conformity dropped to 5%

strengths of social support

• practical applications

• research support eg. asch and milgram

weaknesses of social support

• fails to explain the first dissenter, as they have no social support, so why do they resist

• low external validity

locus of control

• personality dimension by Rotter 1966: the extent to which people perceive themselves to be in control of a situation

• high internal LOC: believing they can affect the outcome of a situation as they are responsible for their own actions and what happens to them due to their own choices and actions

• high external LOC: believing that what happens to them is either due to luck, fate, or other uncontrollable outside forces and they have no impact on this

rotter 1966

suggested having an internal LOC makes people more resistant to social pressure as they believe they are in control of the situation and likely to be more self confident and perceive themselves to have a choice to conform

strengths of LOC

• explains the first dissenter, unlike the social support dissenter

• explains why people did obey and some people didn’t obey (individual differences)

weakness of LOC

• socially sensitive (eg. someone with an external LOC could be seen to have no control)

• neglects to explain if individuals can change their LOC

twenge et al 2004

• found americans had generally become more resistant to social influence in the last half century, but had a more external LOC, contradicting the theory

• lowered explanatory power

• shows other processes can cause resistance, not just LOC