SI and social change eval

Question 1

research support for Normative influence

Answer 1

Nolan studied SI processes into reduction in energy consumption. There was a key message hung in front of doors which read that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. They had control which just told others to save energy but didn’t refer to other people’s behaviour. Nolan found significant decrease in energy usage from first group. Strength because it shows that conformity can lead to social change through NSI

Question 2

Minority influence is only directly effective

Answer 2

Social change happens slowly. e.g. has taken years for drinking driving to change. Nemeth argues that effects of Minority Influence is indirect and delayed. Indirect because majority only focus on a related issue at hand and not the central issue and delayed because effects are not seen for some time. Limitation because it shows that using MI to explain social change is fragile and its role is limited.

Question 3

Methodological issues

Answer 3

Explanations if how SI leads to social change comes from studies from Moscovici, Asch and Milgram. These studies have been heavily criticised for their methodology. For example Many of these studies tend to use artificial tasks such as picking a colour or judging a line. these can be seen as trivial and have no importance in the ppts lives so are less likely to have an effect on them. e.g. Williams and Sogon found that conformity was higher when in with friends rather than stranger. This is limitation because applying finding which tend to have methodological issues mean that there are problems with internal validity and external validity and may not be generalised to other ppts.