social influence and social change

Question 1

what are the 6 steps leading to social change?

Answer 1

1. Commitment
2. Flexibility/consistency
3. deeper processing
4. augmentation principle
5. snowball effect
6. social cryptomnesia

Question 2

explain ‘drawing attention’

Answer 2

-in 1950’s america black people during civil rights movement would do marches to draw attention to the situation

Question 3

explain ‘consistency’

Answer 3

by having many marches that had many individuals taking part

Question 4

explain ‘deeper processing’

Answer 4

this attention caused the people who had accepted the status quo, began to think about how unjust it was

Question 5

explain the ‘augmentation principle’

Answer 5

• incidents where people risked their lives eg. freedom riders who were beaten
• which shifts social views and shows how committed they are

Question 6

explain the ‘snowball effect’

Answer 6

• when pushing for changes eg. MLK this got the attention of the US government causing the civil rights act to be passed
• shows change from minority to majority support for civil rights

Question 7

evaluate ‘deeper processing and moscovici’s theory’

Answer 7

WEAKNESS

• Mackie believes majority influence causes people to think more deeply if you do not share their views
• because… we like to believe that other people share our views, when we find out they do not we are forced to think about their reasoning
• this goes against moscivici’s theory and is a weakness

Question 8

evaluate how minority influence is only indirectly effective?

Answer 8

WEAKNESS

• Nemeth, argues that the effects of minority influence are likely to be most;y indirect and delayed
• Indirect= majority is influenced on matters related to an issue at hand, not central issue itself
• delayed= takes time for issue to be seen
• shows minority influence to be limited in social influence

Question 9

Evaluate Research Support for normative influences?

Answer 9

• hung messages on front doors of houses every week for a month
• key message was that other residents were trying to reduce their energy usage
• other residents (control) were asked to save energy with no reference to other people’s behaviour
• group1= significant decrease in energy
• shows conformity can lead to social change through NSI