social influence -> role of social influence in social change

Question 1

What is social change?

Answer 1

The ways in which a society (rather than an individual) develops over time to replace beliefs, attitudes and behaviour with new norms and expectations

Question 2

How has the civil rights movement in the USA demonstrated social change?

Answer 2

• When individuals e.g. Rosa Parks began to exert minority influence: commitment was shown by being willing to go to prison.
• The message of the minority was consistent - they all wanted the same thing
• The majority were forced to notice the issue as it was in the news often - engaged in deeper processing
• MLK’s approach showed more flexibility than Malcolm X - more effective
• Tipping point: majority influence began to take place - support = conformity
• As is the law - obedience to authority

Question 3

What are the 5 steps to reaching social change?

Answer 3

1) Drawing attention to the issue
2) Consistency of position
3) Deeper processing
4) The augmentation principle
5) The snowball effect

Question 4

How does drawing attention to the issue bring about social change?

Answer 4

The majority must first be made aware of the need for change
- done by minority groups highlighting a concern

Question 5

How does consistency of position bring about social change?

Answer 5

Displaying consistency of viewpoint and intended outcome is beneficial in bringing about social change
- a consistent message appears more credible and can help to convince a majority

Question 6

How does deeper processing bring about social change?

Answer 6

The more people think about the issue at hand, rather than blindly accepting it, the more they will be able to challenge the existing social norms to bring about change

Question 7

How does the augmentation principle lead to social change?

Answer 7

When the majority pays attention to selfless and risky actions being taken by the minority group and is more likely to integrate the group’s opinion into their on personal viewpoints due to sacrifice made by minorit

Question 8

How does the snowball effect bring about social change?

Answer 8

Once the minority viewpoint has got the attention of some of the majority group, the movement moves further

Question 9

What has conformity research shown about social change?

Answer 9

• Goldstein and Cialdini wet towel research
• Similar studies have used social proof/ NSI to increase rates of recycling etc
• social proof/NSI has a significant effect on social change
• Encouraged by drawing attention to what the minority is doing

Question 10

What has research into obedience shown about social change?

Answer 10

• Social change, positive or negative, will be more likely if it happens bit by bit rather than all at once
• known as gradual commitment

Question 11

How does obedience lead to social change?

Answer 11

• Once a small instruction has been followed, it is harder for larger requests to be declined
• People effectively find themselves adopting a new way of behaving gradually over a period of time

Question 12

What examples of obedience leading to social change are there?

Answer 12

• e.g. Milgram didn’t use 450V first but slowly built up to it
• Nazi propaganda slowly increased until death camps were introduced

Question 13

How does resistance to social influence lead to social change?

Answer 13

• Dissenters/ disobedient role models make social change more likely
• Asch and Milgram = dissenters allowed others to disagree or be disobedient
• Demonstrates the impact of individuals/minority dissenters in social change e.g. Rosa Parks who sat at the front of the bus

Question 14

Evaluation: research support for the normative influencers -> strength

Answer 14

• Nolan et.al (2008) investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption in a community
• Involved hanging messages on front doors in California encouraging them to reduce energy consumption by indicating that most other residents in the neighbourhood were already doing this
• As a means of control, some residents had a different message that must asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour
• Found significant decreases in energy usage in the experimental group
• Showed that conformity can lead to positive social change through operation of NSI

Question 15

Evaluation: Methodological issues -> limitation

Answer 15

• Explanations of how social influence leads to social change draws heavily upon studies of Moscovici, Asch and Milgram
• Uses lab research - artificial tasks and settings means it has low ecological validity and mundane realism
• Weakness because it doesn’t reflect real life situations of social influence which are likely to involve strong emotions and beliefs, so there are problems with generalising the findings from these researchers to show how social change occurs in real life

Question 16

Evaluation: Minority influence can act as barriers to social change

Answer 16

• Bashir et.al (2013) investigated why people so often resist social change even when they agree that is is necessary
• Found that some minority groups such as environmental activists or feminists, often live up to the stereotypes associated with those groups, which can be off-putting for outsiders
• This means that the majority often does not want to be associated with a minority for fear of being stereotypically labelled
• Researcher’s advice to minorities hoping to create social change is to avoid behaving in ways that reinforce the stereotypes

Question 17

Evaluation: counterpoint that research is important -> strength

Answer 17

• Helps us understand how social change comes about and which psychological processes might facilitate it
• This is valuable as it can lead to real world changes in people’s lives such as ending the genocide in the middle east and making the world a better, safer, healthier place to live