Summary
Summary Psychology AQA Social Influence Notes
Psychology AQA Social Influence Notes
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Resistance to social influenceResistance to social influence is the ability to withstand social pressure to conform to majority or obey authority. Influenced by both dispositional and situational factors.
Social support – pressure to conform can be resisted with presence of other non-conformers. Seen in Asch’s research. Enables participant to feel free to follow own conscience. Confederate acts as
model for independent behaviour. Majority no longer unanimous. Milgram variation the rate of obedience dropped to 10% when disobedient confederate joined. Challenged legitimacy of authority
making it easier for participant to disobey.
Albrecht evaluated 8-week programme that encouraged pregnant teens 14-19 to resist peer pressure to smoke. Social support provided by mentor. Adolescents who had mentor were less likely to
smoke than control group who did not.
Gamson participants were told to produce evidence that could be used to help an oil company in a smear campaign to damage someone’s reputation. Higher levels of resistance than Milgram.
Participants placed into groups and allowed to discuss. Peer support leads to disobedience. 29/33 groups rebelled.
Locus of Control – propped by Rotter concerned with internal control. Some people have internal locus of control – believing things that happen to them are controlled by themselves. People with
external locus of control believe the opposite. LOC is a scale. High internal LOC at one end high external LOC at the other. High internal LOC more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey, if a person
takes responsibility for their actions they’re more likely to make decisions based on own beliefs, have more self-confidence and greater intelligence.
Holland repeated Milgram’s study and measured LOC of individuals. 37% internals didn’t give highest shock, only 23% external didn’t.
Twenge analysed data from American LOC studies conducted over 40 years. Over time people became more resistant but more external. LOC is not valid explanation? Could be caused by 3 rd variable.
Minority influence Social influence and social change
Refers to situations where on person or a small group influences the beliefs of other people. This is different from conformity African American Civil Rights movement is and example how minority social influence can create social change. Segregation was
which relies on majority influence. Minority influence leads to internalisation. extremely apparent during 1950s. Protests drew attention to and provided proof of the problem. Activists represented a
Moscovici studied this process in his ‘blue slide, green slide’ study. This study has drawn attention to three processes of minority, but their position remained consistent. Millions of people took part in protests over several years representing the
minority influence: same peaceful message. Many people who previously accepted justices thought deeper about the issues. People risked their life
- Consistency – can take the form of agreement between people in a minority group (synchronic consistency – e.g., freedom riders boarded busses and challenged racial biases. Personal risk strengthened their message. Gradually attention
they’re all saying the same thing) and consistency over time (diachronic consistency – they’ve been saying the same of government was gained, and more people began backing minority opinion. This snowball effect led to 1964 Civil Rights Act.
thing for a long time). Consistent minorities make people question their own beliefs. Social cryptomnesia is the idea that some people have no memory of events that led to social change.
- Extreme activity that presents risk to the minority group shows commitment to the cause. This is known as the Environmental campaigns can exploit normative social influence to appeal. Normative messages on litter bins. Social change
augmentation principle.
encouraged by what majority are doing. Milgram’s research demonstrates role of disobedient role models in variation, where
- Nemeth argued that rigidity in view due to consistency can deter people from agreeing and instead flexibility is
confederate teacher disobeyed, obedience fell. Zimbardo suggested obedience can create social change through gradual
important. The minority must be prepared to adapt their views and accept reasonable counterarguments.
commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed it becomes more difficult to resist bigger ones.
Overtime deeper processing will occur and as more people convert the rate of conversion is faster. This is known as the
snowball effect. Minority view becomes majority view. Nolan aimed to see if he could change peoples energy use habits. Placed messages on front doors of California homes about
- Research evidence importance of consistency. Moscovici’s study showed consistent minority opinion greater effect most residence aiming to reduce energy use. Other had messages that asked to save energy with no indication of other people.
than an inconsistent opinion. Wood carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that Greater energy decreases in first group. Majority influence can lead to social change. Some studies show social norms
minorities who were consistent were the most influential. Moscovici’s study the figure of agreement with a ineffective. Foxcroft reviewed 70 studies attempt to reduce student alcohol use. Researchers found only small reduction in
consistent minority was only 8% but when participants wrote down their answers, they were more likely to agree drinking quantity and no effect on frequency.
with the minority view. Nemeth claims social change due to thinking. When considering minority arguments, engage in divergent thinking. The thinker
- Change in majority’s opinion occurs due to deeper processing of minority ideas. Martin presented a message actively looks at information and opinions, can lead to better decisions and solutions of social issues.
supporting a particular viewpoint and measured agreement. One group of participants then heard a minority group Deeper processing may not play role in minority influence. Mackie believes majority influence creates deeper processing. We
agree while another group heard a majority agree with it. Participants were measured again. People were less like to believe that others share our views. If the majority believes something different, we are forced to think of our own
willing to change their opinion if listened to minority group. Studies such as martin make clear distinction between beliefs. Key elements of minority influence could be invalid as an explanation of social change.
minority and majority. Doing this in a controlled way is a strength but real world situations would be more difficult. Bashir found that people still resist social change due to stereotypes. For example, participants less likely to behave
Majorities usually have more power and status. Minorities are also more committed to their cause. These features environmentally friendly as they don’t want to be associated with negative stereotypes. Can overcome barriers of social change.
are absent in minority influence research.
- Tasks are often artificial e.g. Asch’s straight line study. Research is fair removed from how minorities attempt to
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