The Role of Social Influence Processes In Social Change. Flashcards
What are the 2 roles in social change?
- Minority influence
- Conformity
What are the 4 stages in the role of minority influence in social change?
- Drawing attention to an issue
- Consistency
- Flexibility
- The snowball effect
What is a real-life example of a minority group drawing attention to an issue?
The suffragettes protested to draw attention to the fact that women were denied the same voting rights as men.
What is a real life example of a minority group showing consistency?
The suffragettes all consistently made the same argument over time.
What is a real-life example of a minority group showing flexibility?
The suffragettes chose to suspend their activities during WWI to support the war effort.
What is the snowball effect?
This is where the influence of a minority group starts small but its effects grow over time as more people in society consider the issues being promoted, at which point it leads to a wide-scale social change.
What are the 3 evaluation points for the role of minority influence in social change?
+ Moscovici (1969)
- Based on research with low ecological validity
- Real life minority groups are more complicated.
What does the role of conformity refer to?
Normative Social Influence - the desire to be liked and accepted by the majority (avoid being seen as socially deviant).
What are the 2 evaluation points for the role of conformity?
+ Nolan et al (2008)
+ Benefits the economy
support of the role of ‘minority influence’ in social change comes from Moscovici (1969)
E: It was found that, when a minority of confederates consistently said blue slides were green (the incorrect answer), they had a larger influence over the majority group of participants (8.42%) than when. the confederates were inconsistent (1.25%)
L: +ve as it suggests that minorities in society have more chance of social change when they’re consistent.
One problem with understanding the role of minority influence in social change is that our understanding is based on research that is low in ecological validity.
E: Although the laboratory setting may be controlled, it may also be viewed as artificial it doesn’t represent real life.
E: In real life minority groups are usually arguing in favour of important social issues rather than more trivial tasks such as colour judgement.
L: the findings may not generalise to real life minority influence social situations.
A major limitation of minority influence research is that real life minority groups in society are more complicated than much of the research suggests
E: This means there is motor involved in the difference between a minority and a majority than just numbers.
E: Minorities in society usually have much more power and status than minorities whilst minorities can be tight-knit groups whose members know each other well and turn to each other for support.
L: Minority influence research may over simplify the processes involved in social change.
Support for the role of conformity in social change comes from Nolan et al (2008)
E: They hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego every week for a month, saying that most residents were trying to reduce their energy consumption. A control group were asked to save energy but didn’t refer to other people’s behaviour. They found a significant decreases in energy usage in the first group.
L: Conformity can lead to social change through the sue fo NSI.
A strength of research into conformity and social change is that it may benefit the economy.
E: Based on research in social psychology, the government set up the ‘Behavioural Insight Team’ to help them run the country more effectively.
E: They have used NSI messages to help encourage people to pay car tax, reduce drink-driving and junk food consumption by informing people this is not the social ‘norm’.
L: +ve helps reduce waste (such as money spent on unnessessary healthcare costs or chasing non payment) and improve efficiency in the system.
