explanations of resistance to social influence

what is resistance to social influence?

the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform or obey can help others to do the same

what are 2 factors to explain resistance of social influence?

• situational - social support

• dispositional - locus of control

how does social support mean help resistance to social influence?

• the presence of people who resist pressure to conform or obey can help others do the same.

• they act as models - show that disobedience/non-conformity is possible

what is a locus of control?

• refers to the sense we have about what directs events in our lives.

what are the 2 locus of control?

• internal

• external

what is an internal locus of control?

when people believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them

what is an external locus of control?

when people believe what happens to them is mainly a matter of luck or fate

how does locus of control explain resistance to social influence?

high internal LOC are more able to resist pressure to conform or obey actions because:

• they take personal responsibility for their behaviours and their actions

• they base their actions on their own beliefs and not their beliefs of others

how does social support explain resistance to conformity?

• someone else not conforming = social support (don’t have to match your behaviour, just have to be not conforming)

• they act as a model of independence - raises the possibility that there re other ways of thinking

• breaks the unanimity of the majority

how does social support explain resistance to obedience?

• someone else disobeying = social support

• they act as a model of dissent - raises the option of behaving due to your own conscience

• challenged the legitimacy of authority - undermine the agentic shift

what is a dissenter?

an individual who expresses disagreement or opposition to prevailing opinions, decisions or group norms

what is an evaluation point to support social support as an explanation for resistance to social influence? (PET)

P- teen fresh start program supports social support as an explanation for resistance to social influence

E- USA program to help pregnant teens resist pressure to smoke. each teen had a slightly older mentor who provided social support. At the end of the study teens w buddy were significantly less likely to smoke than those without a buddy

T- social support o buddy helped break the unanimity of the majority, buddy = dissenter, enabling the teen to see that not smoking is an option.

what is an evaluation point which only conditionally supports social support as an explanation for resistance to social influence?

P- presence of dissenter reduces conformity but only conditionally

E- Asch like task redone, but with the dissenter with different levels of eyesight (no glasses, thick glasses, thin glasses). More conformed to the dissenter if thy had better eyesight (no glasses)

T- this suggests that we need to take other factors into consideration, not just whether there is social support

what is an evaluation point which supports locus of control as an explanation for resistance to social influence?

• Externals have lower resistance to social influence which means it makes sense for them to conform more to normative social influence

• Externals conform more to normative social influence but there is no difference in terms of informational social influence

• Not as straight forward as external and internal

• There is an interaction with the type of social influence that individuals are exposed to - again suggesting locus of control is only a partial explanation.

what is an evaluation point against locus of control being an explanation for resistance to social influence?

• Meta analysis of 40 studies, overtime people became more resistant to obedience but also more external

• If people became more disobedient over time it would be assumed they were becoming more internal as internal people make choices based off their own decisions not other peoples and so they are more likely to disobey.

• However, they became more external which doesn't make sense