Social Support & Locus of Control (AQA A Level Psychology)

Social support

• Resistance to social influence occurs when the individual decides

  • not to conform to the majority

  • not to obey the orders of an authority figure

• Resisting social influence can involve a certain degree of risk, e.g.

  • 'If I don't go along with the group I will be rejected from it and marginalised'

  • 'If I decide not to obey this order I know that I risk being punished'

• If someone else resists i.e they too do not conform/obey, then this constitutes social support which allows an individual to follow their conscience and go against the group/authority

• The Asch variation of unanimity explored the idea of social support:

  • When one of the confederates went against the group and gave the correct answer, conformity levels decreased from 32% to 5%

  • When one confederate gave a different incorrect answer, conformity decreased to 9%

• Milgram's obedience research involved one variation in which there was at least one disobedient confederate:

  • The participant is put in a group with two confederates (all three are assigned the role of 'Teacher'); one of the confederates is the 'Learner'

  • When the shock generator reaches 150 volts one of the confederate Teachers says that he does not wish to continue

    • the experimenter tells him that he must continue but this particular Teacher leaves the experiment

  • When the shock generator reaches 210 volts the second confederate leaves the experiment

  • The experimenter instructs the participant to carry on with the task

  • In this variation, 90% of participants dropped out before getting to 450 volts

  • 30% of participants required only one act of defiance to exercise their resistance to authority

  • Thus, social support is a strong predictor of resistance to social influence

Locus of control

• Locus of control (LOC) refers to the extent to which someone believes that they have control over - and responsibility for - their lives rather than attributing outcomes to external factors

• Rotter (1966)designed a scale to measure LOC which assesses the extent to which someone uses a predominantly internal or external LOC

Internal locus of control

• High internal LOC is evident in people who feel that they have control over their lives and responsibility for their behaviour

• People with a high internal LOC can resist pressure to conform and obey as they adhere to a high set of standards that they have designated themselves

• People with a high internal LOC tend to be self-confident, intelligent and achievement-orientated

• Examples of high internal LOC behaviour might include:

  • accepting responsibility for not passing an exam by admitting that they did not work hard enough

  • refusing to work beyond office hours at the weekend for a tyrannical boss

  • not joining in with friends who are gossiping about someone behind their back

External locus of control

• High external LOC is evident in people who feel that they have no control over their lives and assume a lack of responsibility for their behaviour

• People with a high external LOC are less able to resist pressure to conform and obey as they believe that other, external factors determine their outcomes

• People with a high external LOC tend to lack confidence, feel insecure and have a high need for social approval

• Examples of high external LOC behaviour might include:

  • blaming the teacher for an exam failure

  • working beyond office hours at the weekend for a tyrannical boss because they do not feel that they can say no

  • joining in with friends who are gossiping about someone behind their back as they want to stay 'in' with the group

Evaluation of social support & locus of control

Strengths

• Rank & Jacobson (1975) replicated Hofling's (1966) study:

  • A doctor (who was given a name the nurses recognised) telephoned 18 different nurses

  • The doctor asked each nurse to administer a non-lethal dose of Valium (a drug the nurses would have been familiar with)

  • The nurses were able to discuss the doctor's order with other nurses

  • Only two of the 18 nurses immediately followed the doctor's order

  • Thus, social support is a key factor in resisting social influence as the nurses were able to discuss the order first

• There is some strong research support for LOC:

  • Holland (1967) repeated Milgram's experiment and found that 37% of participants who refused to continue to 450 volts had a high internal LOC (compared to 24% of participants with a high external LOC)

  • Thus, there is some validity to the idea that a high internal LOC is linked to resistance to authority

Limitations

• The argument that social support enables people to resist social influence may not be true for everyone

  • Some people will always obey, regardless of the circumstances

  • Others will never obey, regardless of the circumstances

  • Others may find social support helpful in one context but not in another

  • Thus, the social support argument does not account for individual differences

• Rotter (1982) pointed out that LOC only seems to apply to new situations

  • If someone has previously obeyed/conformed in one specific situation/set of circumstances, they will likely do so again, regardless of whether they have an internal or external LOC

    • This reduces the validity of the theory to some extent