Social influence and social change Flashcards
How did Moscovici’s research directly affect the study of social influence?
Moscovici’s research into minority influence rejuvenated the study of social influence because it gave psychologists a new direction. They started investigating how major changes in behaviour occurred on the level of whole societies, and not just as a result of minority influence but other forms of social influence as well.
What is social influence?
The process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours. This includes: conformity, obedience and minority influence.
When does social change occur?
Social change occurs when who societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things.
Minority influence creates social change by abiding to a six-step process. Name the six processes associated with social change.
- Drawing attention
- Consistency
- Deeper processing
- Augmentation principle
- The snowball effect
- Social cryptomnesia
Using the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s as an example, explain how drawing attention results in social change.
In the 1950s, black separation applied to all parts of America. There were black neighbourhoods and, in southern states of America, places such as schools and restaurants were exclusive to whites. The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to the situation by providing social proof of the problem.
Using the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s as an example, explain how consistency results in social change.
There were many marches and many people taking part. Even though they were a minority of the American population, the civil rights activists displayed consistent of message and intent.
Using the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s as an example, explain how deeper processing results in social change.
This attention meant that many people who had simply accepted the status quo began to think about the unjustness of it.
Using the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s as an example, explain how the augmentation principle results in social change.
There were a number of incidents where individuals risked their lives. For example, the ‘freedom riders’ were mixed racial groups who got on buses in the south to challenge the fact that black people had to sit separately. Many freedom riders were beaten and there were incidents of mob violence.
Using the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s as an example, explain how the snowball effect results in social change.
Civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King continued to press for changes that gradually got the attention of the US government. In 1964, the US Civil Rights Act was massed, which prohibited discrimination. This represented a change from minority to majority support for civil rights.
Using the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s as an example, explain how social cryptomnesia results in social change.
There is no doubt that social change did some about but some people have no memory of the events that led to this change.
What is social cryptomnesia?
When people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened.
What lessons have been learnt from research into conformity?
Environmental and health campaigns increasingly exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence. They do this by providing information about what other people are doing. In this light, social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are doing.
For example, preventing young people from taking up smoking by informing children that most other young people don’t smoke.
What lessons have been learnt from research into obedience?
Zimbardo suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one. People essentially ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour.
Evaluation point: ‘One strength of social change derives from supporting research evidence’. Write a paragraph outlining this AO3 point.
One strength of social change derives from supporting research evidence. For example, in 2008 Nolan et al hung messages on the doors of homes in California every week for a month. The messages informed residents that most of their neighbours were trying to reduce energy usage in their area. A control set of houses had messages which asked them to save energy but did not mention their neighbours. Nolan and his colleagues found a significant drop in energy usage in the first group compared to the control. This therefore acts as a strength because it supports the idea that conformity can lead to social change through normative social influence. Because Nolan’s study is in support of the initial concept of social change, his theory has both both temporal validity and reliability. This is because the findings have remained consistent over a long period of time. Additionally, because Nolan conducted his supporting research in a natural, every-day environment, the concept of social change can be seen to have real-life application and external validity. This thus enables psychologists to investigate how social change operates in every-day life. The extent of this application is somewhat limited however, because Nolan only conducted his research in California. Because his theory is culture bias in nature, it provides us with no insight into the origins of social change in other, non-western cultures. This low population validity means that research into social change has a limited use within psychology.
Evaluation point: ‘One limitation of minority influence is its limited impact over human behaviour’. Write a paragraph outlining this AO3 point.
One limitation of minority influence is its limited impact over human behaviour. For example, in 1986, Charlan Nemeth proposed that the effects of minority influence are likely to be indirect and delayed. They are indirect because the majority is influenced on matters only related to the issue at hand, and not the central issue itself. They are delayed because the effects may not be seen for some time. This therefore acts as a limitation of using minority influence to explain social change because it shows that its effects are fragile and its role in social influence is very limited. In this light, the concept of minority influence can be criticised for being reductionist in nature because it fails to recognise wider environmental factors that might influence whether or not an individual chooses to conform to the minority. Because evidence has revealed that minority influence is both ‘delayed’ and ‘indirect’, there must be an alternative explanation as to why large groups adopt the views of the minority. Nemeth’s proposal also points to the idea that initial research into minority influence exaggerated its impact over human behaviour. This therefore causes the validity of minority influence to decrease.
