social influence & social change

Question 1

define social change

Answer 1

when a whole society adopts a new belief/behaviour, which then becomes widely accepted as the norm. this occurs gradually over time & is when a minority viewpoint eventually becomes a majority opinion.

Question 2

how many steps are there to explain how social change occurs via minority influence & name them

Answer 2

6
1. drawing attention
2. consistency
3. deeper processing
4. augmentation principle
5. snowball effect
6. social cyrptomnesia

Question 3

definition & example of drawing attention

Answer 3

• highlighting a concern
  eg. rosa parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in montogomery, alabama & she was arrested = put in press

Question 4

definition & example of consistency

Answer 4

• displaying an unswerving message & intent
  eg. rosa parks worked for civil rights throughout her life

Question 5

definition & example of deeper processing

Answer 5

• many people who simply accept status quo start thinking further
  eg. people who just accepted society began to think & realise unjustness of it/unfairness
  eg. reaction of authorities to us civil rights movement caused many to sway to minority view

Question 6

definition & example of augmentation principle

Answer 6

• minorities take risks to further their cause
  eg. montgomery bus boycott, little rock nine (arkansas)

Question 7

definition & example of snowball effect

Answer 7

• people switch from majority position to minority one
  eg. minority view (equality) converted to majority view via activism

Question 8

definition & example of social cryptomnesia

Answer 8

• people have a memory that change has occurred but some people have no memory of the events leading to the change
  eg. people born after laws are created have no recollection of what led to the social change where the law was introduced

Question 9

evaluation of the impact of social influence on social change - AO3

Answer 9

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P: research has shown that social influence processes based on psychological research do work
E: eg. nolan et. al (2008) aimed to see if they could change peoples energy use habits. the researchers hung messages on the doors of homes in california every week for 1 month. the message said how most of their neighbours were trying to reduce energy usage in their area & a control set of houses had messages asking them to save energy (without mentioning neighbours). there were significant decreases in energy usage for the 1st group.
T: shows that minority influence (conformity) can lead to social change through the operation of normative social influence.

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P: some studies show peoples behaviour isn’t always changed by exposing them to social norms
E: eg. foxcroft et. al (2015) reviewed social norms interventions. this review included 70 studies where the social norms approach was used to reduce student alcohol use. the researchers found only a small reduction in drinking quantity & no effect on drinking frequency
T: using normative influence doesn’t always produce long term social change

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P: (of practical advice given) people still resist change
E: eg. bashir et. al (2013) wanted to invetsigate if there’s a barrier which causes people to resist social change even if they agree it’s necessary. they foudn that their participants were less likely to act in an eco-friendly way as they didn’t want to be associated with stereotypical ‘environmentalists’. minority group judged to be ‘tree huggers’.
T: social change can be impacted with societal stereotypes & normative social influence

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P: deeper processing may not play a role in minorities influencing social change
E: some people may be converted as they think more deeply about minorities views. mackie (1987) disagrees & argues it is majority influence (conformity) which causes people to think more deeply as we like to think others share our views. when we find a majority that thinks differently, we’re forced to think about their arguments & reasoning
T: 1 of the key components of minority influence has been challenged which challenges its validity as an explanation for social change

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P: psychologists can explain how minority influence brings about social change
E: eg. nemeth (2009) claims social change is due to the type of thinking that minorities inspire. when people consider their arguments, they engage in divergent thinking. this thinking is broad & the thinker actively searches for information & weighs up more options. nemeth argues this leads to better decisions & more creative solutions to social issues
T: shows how minorities are valuable within society due to the creative ideas/solutions they inspire