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social influence process and social change - Coggle Diagram
social influence process and social change
definitions and examples
social influence
the process by which individuals and groups change each other's attitudes and behaviours
social change
occurs when whole societies rather than just individuals adopt new attitudes, beliefs, and ways of doing new things.
in the 1950s america, the civil rights movement involved mass protest against racial segregation and discrimination
women's suffrage in United Kingdom
processes in social change
minority influence
minorities can contribute to social change by being consistent, flexible, and committed.
1)
drawing attention
- a minority uses social proof to draw attention to an issue - for example in 1950s America there was segregation so the civil rights marches of this period drew attention to the situation by providing social proof of the problem.
2)
consistency
- a consistent minority makes the majority start to rethink their views - even though the marches originally involved a minority of the American population, their message and intent were consistent; to end segregation.
3)
deeper processing
- the majority is forced to process the message from the minority - people who had simply accepted the status quo of segregation began to think about the unjustness of it.
4)
the augmentation principle
- the minority demonstrates they are committed to the cause - there were a number of incidents where individuals risked their lives
5)
the snowball effect
- overtime, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position. they become converted, the more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion - civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr continued to press for social change and in 1964 the us civil rights act was passed which prohibited discrimination - change from majority to minority.
6)
social cryptoamnesia
- a form of cognitive bias experienced by whole cultures. society remembers that the change happens but not the specific events leading to the change - some people did have no memory of the change.
processes in social change
conformity
dissent
- Asch highlighted the role of dissent where a confederate gave correct answers. this broke the power of the majority encouraging others to dissent which has the potential to lead to social change - in the American civil rights movement, seeing others willing to break the rules to protest encouraged members of the majority to do the same.
normative social influence
- social change can be brought about by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing, encouraging others to change their behaviour to fit in with the group - environmental and health campaigns often exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI by providing information about what other people are doing.
informational social influence
- social change can be brought about by providing the public with new information that might change their attitudes, encoring others to change their behaviour - environmental and health campaigns sometimes use statistics and facts to highlight the consequences of damaging behaviour.
obedience
disobedient role models
- Milgram's research demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models, in the variation where a confederate teacher refuses to give shocks to the learner, the rates of obedience in genuine participants fell - in the American civil rights movement, seeing role models such as MLKjr speak out about injustice freed other members of society to follow their own conscience.
legitimate authorities
- as a society we have agreed to give certain people in certain positions authority over us, allowing society to function. a consequence is that these authorities have the power to punish - social change can be brought about by the government passing laws that the public must follow to avoid punishment.
gradual committment
- once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one, people drift into a new behaviour and in milligram's study the initial shock was labelled 15V, making it easier for participants to continue following orders - health campaigns will often encourage society to make small changes that could have greater impacts.
evaluation
strength - there is research to support the role of NSI in social change. Nolan et al hung messages on houses that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. this created a significant decrease in energy use in comparison to a small group with no other reference to people's behaviours. this shows that conformity can lead to social change through NSI.
limitation - identification is an important variable that is overlooked in minority influence. Bashir et al found that participants rated environmental activists negatively and labelled them as 'tree-huggers'. being able to identify with a minority group is just as important as agreeing with their views in terms of changing behaviour.
limitation - there are methodological issues as explanations of social change rely on laboratory experiements. Asch, Moscovici and Milgram can all be criticised for using artificial tasks and creating a dynamic that does not reflect real life. this suggests that research cannot be generalised to explain social change in the real world.
limitation - the view that minority influence leads to deeper processing has been questioned. Mackie argues that it is actually majority influence that creates deeper processing if you do not share their views. we believe that others think the same way as us and if we find that they do not force us to think harder about their arguments. this shows that a central element of minority influence is challenged and may be incorrect. this creates a problem when using this theory to explain social change
limitation - minority influence is delayed in creating social change. it took a long time for attitudes surrounding drink-driving and smoking to shift in society. although a change can occur in time, minority influence cannot explain any of the changes that occur more quickly within society.