Full mark essay of the exam question 'Discuss the role of social influence in the process of social change - 16 marks'. Purchase to optain access to second half of the essay which includes evaluation (limitations and advantages).
Discuss the role of social influence in the process of social change - 16 marks
Social change refers to how, over time, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of a
society are replaced with new norms and expectations. There are many processes
that are involved, the first of which is Drawing attention. This when the issue at
hand is brought to the attention of the masses, this can be through marches and
campaigning. Consistency is next. Displaying a consistent viewpoint is beneficial in
bringing about social change, as the message appears more credible and can help to
convince a majority. Another process is the Augmentation Principle. When the
majority pays attention to selfless and risky actions being taken by the minority
group, it is more likely to integrate the group’s opinion into their own personal
viewpoints due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority. Once the minority
viewpoint has got the attention of some of the majority group members, more and
more people begin paying attention and the minority viewpoint gathers momentum,
which is called the snowball effect. Finally, Normative Social Influence can
encourage social change by reporting the behaviour or attitudes of the majority, to
urge others to follow suit to fit in with the group.
Moscovici (1969) provided support for the role of consistency in the process of
social change through a laboratory study involving 32 groups of 6 females. The
groups were asked to identify the colour presented to them which was always blue
but varying shades. However, two group members who were confederates always
answered incorrectly either all the time or most of the time to measure the impact
consistency would have on the majority. Results found when the confederates were
consistent in their responses and stated the slides were green, 8% of the majority
agreed also. This was also seen to be higher when the group members were asked
to write down their responses rather than state them out loud. Moscovici
concluded the reason more people didn’t conform in his original study was possibly
due to the pressure to conform being greater however when allowed to give an
answer in secret more were likely to agree with the minority. When confederates
gave inconsistent answers varying from blue and green their influence dropped to
1.25%. This supports consistency as an important element for the process of social
change to occur.
A criticism in this study is that all the participants were female and results gained
from just one gender may not translate to males due to gender bias in the findings.
It may be argued that a group of men would be less likely to be persuaded due to
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