1. Social Influence
Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.

2. Today’s lesson Go over essay hand out from last week 20 minute: essay
Explanations of resistance to social influence

3. Why do people resist social influence?
Lesson Objectives
Why do people resist social influence?
Understand
AO1
To describe explanations for resistance to social influence
Apply
AO2
To explain real life examples of resistance to social influence.
Evaluate
AO3
To assess explanations of resistance to social influence, discussing strengths, weaknesses and evidence.

4. Is it better to be resistant or obedient? Discuss.
Social resistance
Is it better to be resistant or obedient? Discuss.
Group discussion
Individually write your answer on mini white board. (10 minutes)

5. Resistance to social influence
Research studies carried out by Asch, Zimbardo and Milgram have shown how many people conform or obey when put under pressure.
However, in each of these studies, some individuals resisted the pressure put on them and retained their independence.
How many participants in Asch and Milgram’s retained their independence?
Asch: 24%
Zimbardo: 2/3
Hofling: 1
Milgram: 35%
(5 minutes)

6. What factors lead people to resist social pressure?
10 minutes

7. Social Influence Task: Questionnaire
5 minutes
Task: Questionnaire
Complete the questionnaire by circling the statement in each question that best
applies to you.
While you’re answering it, think about what your answers say about you…

8. Social Influence What is Locus of Control? (Rotter)
Locus of control refers to a person’s perception of personal control over their own behaviour. It is a personality explanation!
Measured on a scale of high internal to high external.
Internal
External
An individual who believes their life is determined by their own decisions and efforts.
An individual who believes their life is determined by fate, luck and external factors.

9. Internal locus of control or external locus of control?
Social Influence
Which type of LOC are likely to resist social influence?
Internal
External
An individual who believes their life is determined by their own decisions and efforts.
An individual who believes their life is determined by fate, luck and external factors.
Individual with an internal LOC are more likely to resist pressures to conform and obey
Internal locus of control or external locus of control?

10. Internality and resistance to social influence
Active seekers of information. Less likely to rely on information from others.
Achievement-orientated – more likely to become leaders as opposed to followers.
Better able to resist coercion from others
Characteristics individuals have who can resist social influence

11. How does this relate to Social Influence?
Internal vs. External
Type of LOC
Characteristics
How does this relate to Social Influence?
Internal
High level of personal control over their lives and behaviour. Take personal responsibility for it. ‘I made it happen!’
High internals actively seek out information which will help them personally and are less likely to rely on others.
They are more achievement orientated. They can resist pressure from others.
External
The belief that life is determined by external/environmental factors, such as luck. ‘Wrong place, wrong time!’
High Externals are more likely to be influenced by others as they don’t believe they exercise personal control over their lives.

12. Social Influence
Task
Using our discussions and the pack, textbook to help…
Complete the locus of control worksheet…

13. Social Influence Task: Which Locus of Control?
5 minutes
Task: Which Locus of Control?
Decide which of the scenarios have an internal or external locus of control.
1) Amanda doesn’t bother applying for the position of Head Girl because she feels she is not popular enough to win.
2) Ben checks his horoscope every day to see if he is going to have a good or a bad day.
3) Harry feels confident that he will get the job he applied for because he has good exam results and did well in the interview.

14. Research Evidence for Locus of Control
Elms and Milgram (1974) investigated the background of some of the disobedient participants from Milgram’s first four obedience experiments. They found that disobedient participants had a high internal locus of control and scored higher on a scale that measured their sense of social responsibility
On the big whiteboard write a conclusion, 2 evaluation points of each piece of research and one practical application from the research.
feedback

15. Oliner & Oliner 1988) interviewed two groups of non-Jewish people who had lived through the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. They compared 406 people who had rescued Jews with 126 who had not done so. Oliner & Oliner found that the ‘rescuers’ were more likely to have scores demonstrating a high internal locus of control than the non-rescuers, and also scored more highly on measures of social responsibility
Why is this piece of research important?

16. Williams and Warchal (1981) studied 30 university students who were given a range of conformity tasks based on Asch’s procedure. Each student was also assessed using Rotter’s locus of control scale. They found that those who conformed did not score differently on the locus of control scale but they were less assertive, so assertiveness may have more to do with conformity than locus of control
What does this piece of research suggest?
Is the research correlational or cause and effect? What does this mean?

17. Spector found that an internal locus of control was important in resisting normative social influence but did not appear to be a significant factor in resisting informational influence.
Rotter points out that LOC only is a factor in novel situations. It has very little influence over our behaviour in familiar situations , where our previous experiences will always be more important.

18. Social Influence: evaluation
10 minutes
Task: Locus of Control AO3
Use the 4 boxes to evaluate the locus of control explanation of resistance to social influence…
Consider
Supporting Evidence
Contradictory Evidence
Alternative Explanations
Strengths and weaknesses
Remember… to get full marks in the exam you need to explain WHY it’s a strength/weakness of LOC!

19. Social Influence Task: Which Locus of Control are YOU? On your table….
5 minutes
Task: Which Locus of Control are YOU?
On your table….
According to the questionnaire, do you have a more internal or external locus of control? Or are you in the middle?
What does this say about you?
3) Are you more or less likely to resist social influence and act independently?
I have an …… locus of control
This means I…..
If you have an ….. locus of control…..you will…….. to social influence because….
Place it on the continuum according to your LOC score

20. Exam practice: Answer on MWB
Asgarth and Hyacinth are students at Rydell High. They have very different outlooks on life. Asgarth believes you have to grasp opportunities with both hands because your fate is under your own control. That is why he has put his name forward to be his tutor representative on the school council. Hyacinth, on the other hand, thinks that ‘what will be will be’ and there's very little she can do to change that. She is also standing as tutor group rep, but thinks its just down to luck whether she wins or loses Exam question: Identify Asgarth and Hyacinth LOC (4 marks)
Identify Asgarth and Hyacinth LOC
Whoever wins the election will come under pressure to conform or obey. Will Asgarth or hyacinth be better able to resist social influence. Explain your decision.

21. Social Influence Is LOC the only reason for resistance? London Riots
Why did these individuals decide to disobey authority?