reasons for independent behaviour including locus of control and social support essay plan
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Course
Social Influence
Institution
AQA
This document includes an essay plan grid for the subtopic reasons for independent behaviour including locus of control and social support in the A level Psychology social influence topic
Locus of - Explanation for why people don’t obey or conform. A weakness of the LOC as an explanation for resistance to social change is that there’s
control - The extent to which individuals think they can control events that affect them. refuting evidence from the research done by Twenge et al (2004).
(LOC)
- A 13 item questionnaire developed by Rotter (1966). They found that over time, Americans have become more resistant to obedience, but have
- Scores range from 0-13. also become more external in their LOC. The LOC as an explanation for resistance to social
- A low score indicates an internal LOC while a high score indicates an external change suggests that having a more internal LOC would lead to resisting obedience.
LOC.
This is a weakness because this research refutes the suggestions of the explanation and
therefore weakens the explanation.
Internal - A belief that you can influence events and outcomes. A strength of the link between the LOC and resistance to obedience is that there’s research
LOC - Believe that their own actions determine the rewards that they obtain. support.
- High level of personal control over their lives and behaviour. Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants
- Take personal responsibility for it. ‘I made it happen’. were internals or externals. They found that 37% of internals and 23% of externals resisted
obedience. Internals showed greater resistance to authority. This shows a link between
- Actively seek out information which will help them personally and are less likely LOC and resistance to obedience.
to rely on others.
- More achievement oriented and can resist pressure from others. This increases the validity of the LOC explanation’s ability to explain resistance.
External - Blames everything on outside forces. A strength of the explanation of social support is that there’s research support of the role of
LOC - Believe that their own behaviour doesn’t matter much and that rewards in life are dissenting peers in resisting obedience.
generally outside of their control.
Gamson et al (1982) conducted a study where participants were in groups and had to
- The belief that life is determined by external / environmental factors such as luck. produce evidence that would be used to help an oil company run a smear campaign.
‘Wrong place, wrong time’. They found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram.
In Gamson’s study, 29 out of 33 groups of participants (88%) rebelled.
- More likely to be influenced by others as they don’t believe they exercise
personal control over their lives. This shows that peer support, from being in groups, is linked to greater resistance.
Social - When someone else isn’t following the majority. A strength of the explanation of social support is that there’s research support of the role of
support dissenting peers in resisting conformity.
- The pressure to conform may be resisted if there are other people present who
aren’t conforming. Allen and Levine (1971) found that conformity decreased when there was one dissenter in
- It enables the naive participant to be free to follow their own conscience. an Asch-type study. More importantly, this occurred even if the dissenter wore thick glasses
and said he had difficulty with his vision (so wouldn’t have been able to judge the line
- The pressure to obey can be resisted if there’s another person who disobeys. lengths).
- The person may not follow the disobedient person’s behaviour but the other
person’s disobedience acts as a ‘model’ of dissent for the participant to copy and This supports the view that resistance is not just motivated by following what someone
act from his own conscience. says, but it enables someone to be free from the pressure of the group.
- The disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure, making
it easier for others to disobey.
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