🧡1.7 resistance to social influence

Define resistance to social influence

The ability to withstand the social pressure to conform or obey

Define social support

People who resist pressures to conform or obey can act as models to help others do the same

Define locus of control

The beliefs we have about what controls events in our lives. Internals - they are in control. External - external forces are in control

Social support - resisting conformity

Asch found that conformity decreased when the confederate didn’t conform

Social support - resisting obedience

Milgram found obedience decreased when a confederate teacher didn’t obey

Social support evaluation - real world application

• An 8 week programme called teen fresh start USA is used to help young pregnant women to quit smoking

• Found those with a mentor or buddy were significantly less likely to smoke

Social support evaluation - research support

• gamson asked participants to produce evidence that would help destroy an oil companies reputation

• Found light levels of resistance because they were in groups

Social support evaluation - doesn’t always apply

• Allen and Levine did a line judging task (similar to Asch)

• Found that when the dissenter had poor eyesight and thick glasses, resistance was only 36%

(dissenter - someone who gave a different/ correct answer)

Who proposed locus of control

Rotter

What does rotter mean by the locus of control ‘continuum’

Locus of control is a scale, people aren’t just one or the other

What did rotter found about those with a high internal locus of control

• more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey as they take more responsibility and have stronger beliefs

• More confident, more achievement orientated and have higher intelligence. So resist social influence and need less social approval

LOC evaluation - research support

• Holland repeated milgrams study and measured if participants were internals and externals

• Found internals had higher resistance (more disobedient)

LOC evaluation - contradictory research

• twenge analysed LOC studies from over 40 years

• found that people are becoming more resistant to obedience but also more external

• So its not valid

LOC evaluation - limited role

• Rotter suggests that LOC is not the most important factor for resisting social influence

• Dependent on the situation. It must be new, in old situations you’ll behave in the same way