ROLE OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE PROCESSES IN SOCIAL CHANGE Flashcards
1
Q
define social change
A
- Social change = occurs when societies as a whole adopt new attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.
Social change is caused by minority influence - If an individual is exposed to a persuasive argument under certain conditions, they may change their views (conversion)- a necessary requirement for social change
2
Q
deeper prossesing
A
- Firstly, you draw attention to the issue.
- Then you must display an unswerving message- showing your consistency of position.
- Many people who simply accept the current situation think further
3
Q
augmentation principles
A
- risks involved putting views foward views so that it taken more seriously by others and you are more likely to have social change
4
Q
snow ball effect
A
- occurs when people switch from a majority position to a minority
5
Q
social- crypto amnesia
A
- have a memory that change has occurred but some people have no memory of the events leading to that change
6
Q
NSI
A
- can encourage social change, by reporting the behaviour or attitudes of the majortiy, to urge others to follow to fit in with group
7
Q
SUPPORTING EVIDENCE (SUFFAGETTES)
A
- the augmentation principle, the three conditions of minority influence. suffragettes who won the right to vote after 50 years.
- they used consistency to gain their rights
- they also used commitment as there were high risks involved sharing views like going to prison, (the augmentation principle).
8
Q
SUPPORTING EVIDENCE (MARTIN LUTHER KING)
A
- who gained black rights by expressing his minority view. later this view became the majority, showing the real-life application of these processes.
9
Q
reserach for NSI found by Nolan et al
A
- conducted a study where he hung messages Infront of houses
- The key message was most residents are trying to reduce energy consumption.
- He found that there was a significant decrease in energy use compared to control group who saw messages to save energy with no reference to other people’s behaviour.
10
Q
Opposing research has been found for the role of deeper processing in minority influence.
A
- For example, Mackie argues majority influence causes deeper processing. When we find out that the majority thinks differently from us, we are forced to think long and hard about their arguments.
- Disadvantage as it questions the key principles of Moscovici’s theory, as he suggested that minority causes majority to deeper process, yet Mackie suggests the opposite.
- Therefore, this decreases the credibility of the theory
11
Q
Another limitation of the research into minority influence is that the studies use artificial settings and stimuli.
A
- For example, conducted in lab settings and the tasks involved in conformity studies are often artificial.
- For instance, line judgement and colour slides. This shows that the tasks lack mundane realism.
- Furthermore ,high control means p’s will likely guess the aim of the study and show Demand characteristic .
- Disadvantage as it impacts the validity of the results, and QVOT. However, high control allows us to replicate the study.
- This means we are able to retest and see if results are still accurate/have changed overtime
12
Q
However, a limitation of using minority influence to bring aboutsocial change is that it’s a very slow process, if it does happen at all.
A
- For example, Nemeth suggests that the effects of minority influence are indirect and delayed.
- They are indirect because the majority is only concerned on matters related to the
specific issues (For example, recycling) and not the central issue itself (global warming). - They are delayed because they may not be seen in society for some time.
- Disadvantage as it’s a limited explanation of the minority influence
13
Q
3 studies that take a nomethic approach
A
- asch, miligram, moscovici
