Social Influence: Social influence processes in social change Flashcards
Define social change
occurs when a society or section of a society adopts a new belief or way of thinking which then becomes widely accepted as the norm
What are the 5 stages of social change?
Drawing attention to the issue
Cognitive conflict
Consistency of position
The augmentation principle
The snowball effect
What is drawing attention to the issue?
To bring about social change minorities must draw the majorities attention to an issue. If their views are different to those held by the majority, this creates a conflict that they are then motivated to reduce.
What is cognitive conflict?
the minority must inspire people to seriously consider their views. Create conflict between what the majority believe and the position advocated by the minority. This causes the majority group to then think more deeply about the issues raised by the minority.
What is consistency of position?
The minority must express their views consistently. Minorities are more influential if they are consistent. Arguments that are expressed consistently tend to be more influential in bringing about social change.
What is the augmentation principle?
The minority must be willing to suffer for their cause. If there are risks involved for the minority they are taking more seriously. An example of this is abuse, media attention, imprisonment or even death.
What is the snowball effect?
The minority must spread their message widely, to as many people as they can. Minority starts with small impact but then eventually spreads as more and more people consider their position. Then reaches A tipping point which leads to a wider scale of social change.
What are the 4 AO3 points for social influence processes in social change?
-Limit of minority influence
-Additional challenges faced by the minority
+Supporting influence
+Minority influence does bring about social change
(-AO3) What is the limit of minority influence?
Being perceived as deviance by the majority can negatively impact minority influence as the majority doesn’t want to be seen as deviant themselves.
The message of the minority would have very little impact because the focus of the majority’s attention would be on the source of the message i.e the deviate minority rather than the message itself.
Therefore, minorities face an additional challenge of avoiding being portrayed as deviants and also making people directly embrace their position.
(-AO3) What are the additional challenges faced by the minority?
Social change through minority influence is very gradual.
The role played by a minority influence may be limited since minorities such as the suffragettes rarely bring about social change quickly. Because there is a strong tendency for humans to confirm the majority people are more likely to maintain the status quo rather than engage in social change. This suggests that the influence of a minority is frequently more latent than direct i.e it creates the potential for change rather than actual social change.
(+AO3) What is the supporting research for social influence processes in social change?
Rosa Parks is a key sample of minority influence. Her decision of choosing to sit when this segregated boss lets her rise in number of people supporting the civil rights movement. This shows how a minority can influence the opinion of the majority as her actions help to change the views of many Americans.
(+AO3)Minority influence does bring about social change
Nemeth claimed that social change was due to engagement with minority views. The wider society critically evaluates minority viewpoints which leads to better decision making. This shows dissenting minorities as important.
