These lesson notes cover most/all of the AQA Psychology Social Influence content - they cover AO1, AO3 (evaluations of the topic) and even AO2 (applying the content to scenarios). The work of three main researchers : Milgram on obedience ; Zimbardo and Asch on conformity is covered. The notes are w...
What do I need to know?
What are the steps taken to create change through minority influence?
How can we use what we know about conformity to bring about social change?
How can we use what we know about obedience to bring about social change?
How can these explanations of change be evaluated?
Questions to answer in class:
1. Social change I would like to bring about:
Extreme poverty while there are billionaires.
2. Specific, contextualised suggestion for how I would draw attention:
Focussing on the fact that billionaires could solve poverty and still have a lot of money.
3. Cognitive Conflict (what is the majority position vs the minority position):
Majority : capitalism, billionaires deserve their wealth / minority : billionaires should not be
allowed to have that much money or they should donate some to charity to help poor
families.
4. What is the consistent message you will articulate for your campaign for social change? What
are the reasons you want to promote it to the majority?
Lots of people coming together to campaign for a long time.
5. How will you achieve the augmentation principle?
Public strikes and protests.
6. How might the snowball effect work in the context of your example?
More people will listen and therefore this might reach the government.
Mike and his grandfather were having a conversation about recycling. Mike explained that he always
puts empty cans and plastic bottles in one box and newspapers and cardboard in another box and
that his mum takes these to be recycled once a week. His grandfather said that when he was Mike’s
age, people did not recycle. Mike said that everyone in his street recycles and that they have a big
box at school especially for recycling.
Using your knowledge of the psychology of social change, explain why recycling is now behaviour
carried out by a majority of people in this country. (6 marks)
Social change can be brought about by minority influence, where an individual or small group draws
attention to an issue, creating cognitive conflict. Small groups of people who cared about the
environment may have drawn attention to the environmental impact of not recycling. They may have
appealed to shared values of sustainability and a clean world for young people in order to create
cognitive conflict with the view that recycling is a waste of time. Minorities are more persuasive if
they are consistent over time (diachronic consistency) and across people (synchronic consistency).
The environmental groups may have repeated the same message regarding the importance of
recycling for many years since Mike’s grandfather was young. According to the augmentation
principle, if the minority appears willing to suffer for their views, they are taken more seriously,
leading to the snowball effect. Environmental groups may have recycled at a time when it required a
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