Social Change Flashcards
Social Change, Minority Influence, Resistance.
Factors in Social Change
Drawing Attention
Protests, marches and campaigning to draw attention to a problem or cause that opposes the majority position.
Factors in Social Change
Consistency
Activists must not change their beliefs or demands.
Factors in Social Change
Synchronic
Consistency
All activists are saying the same thing.
Factors in Social Change
Diachronic
Consistency
All activists have been saying the same thing for a long time, which makes other people start to rethink their own views.
Factors in Social Change
Commitment
Must demonstate their dedication to the cause.
Factors in Social Change
Augmentation Principle
Commitment
Minorities may engage in extreme activities that put themselves in danger to display a greater committment and draw the attention of the majority.
Factors in Social Change
Flexibility
- Consistency is not the only important factor in minority influence.
- Someone who is extremely consistent may be seen as rigid, unbending and dogmatic, which is unlikely to appeal to the majority.
- Minorities need to balance between consistency and flexability and be prepared to adapt their point of view.
Definition
Snowball Effect
The minority view has become the majority view and change has occurred.
Definition
Social Cryptoamnesia
When people have a memory that change has occurred, but don’t remember how it happened.
Deeper Processing
When people who had simply accepted the status quo began to reconsider their belief.
Consistency: Evaluation
Research Support
Moscovici (1969)
- Blue/green slides study showed a consistent minority had a greater effect on changing views.
- Wood (1994) conducted a meta-analysis of 100 similar studies.
- Found that the minorities that were the most consistent had the greatest influence.
This suggests that presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for a minority trying to influence a majority.
Consistency Evaluation
Research Support
- Blue-green slide study showed a consistent minority had a greater affect on the majority than an inconsistent minority.
- Wood (1994) carried out meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were consistent were the most influential.
Strength
Presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for a minority to influence a majority.
Minority Influence: Evaluation
Research Support
Martin (2003) (Deeper Processing)
- A message supporting a particular viewpoint was presented.
- One group then heard the minority group agree with the initial view; another heard the majority agree.
- Participants were exposed to a conflicting view and people were less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority.
Suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect.
Minority Influence: Evaluation
Low Ecological Validity
Martin (2003)
- Real-world social influence is more complicated as majorities usually have more power and status than minorities.
- Minorities must be very commited to their cause as they often face hostile opposition.
- The consequences of agreeing with the minority are absent from minority influence research.
Martin (2003)’s findings are limited in what they can tell us about minority influence in real-world situations.
Minority Influence: Evaluation
Artifical tasks
Martin (2003)
- Research is often far from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life.
- In jury decision-making and political campaigning, the outcomes are vastly more important than identifying the colour of a slide.
- Sometimes the outcomes are a matter of life and death.
Findings of minority influence studies are lacking in external validity and a limited in what they can tell us about real-world social situations.
Factors in Social Change
Normative Social Influence
- An experiment in California was conducted.
- A message (claiming “others in your area are trying to limit energy usage”) was nailed onto people’s doors each week for a month.
- A control group had no mention of other people in the message.
- A large decrease in energy usage in the first group compared to the control group.
Shows minorities can inact change by using NSI and acting as a majority.
Resistence to Social Influence
Barriers
- A study found people resist social change.
- Participants were less likely to behave in an ‘environmentally friendly way’ because they didn’t want to be associated with stereotypical environmentalists.
- The participants negatively described environmental activists.
Participants were less likely to behave in a certain way because they didn’t want to be associated with that minority group.
Resistance to Social Influence
Social Support
- Conformity is reduced by the presence of a dissenter as it helps resist peer pressure. (E.g. to smoke - Albrecht et al.)
- Obedience dropped by 55% from the presence of a disobedient peer (Milgram)
- Resistance was lower even when confederate had poor eyesight (Allen and Levine - replication of Asch)
Definition
Locus of Control (LOC)
- LOC is a scale that says of what directs events in our lives (from an internal or external source).
- High internal at one end and high external at the other.
- Internals can resist social influence, are more confident and have less need for approval.
Locus of Control (LOC) Evaluation
Research Support
- Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants were internals or externals.
- 37% of internals and 23% of externals did not continue to 450V.
- Internals showed greater resistence to authority in a Milgram-type situation.
Showed resistence is related to LOC in some way, which increases the validity of LOC and an explanation of disobedience.
Locus of Control (LOC) Evaluation
Contradictory Research
- Twenge (2004) analysed data from American LOC studies from 1960 to 2002.
- The data showed people become more resistent to obedience but also more external.
Suggests LOC is not a valid explanation of how people resist social influence.
