Starter: evaluate SLT

Homework Complete the social influence work booklet on the website Research an influential minority – can be an individual or group. Create an A4 poster What is social change How did the person influence social change How did society change as a result of their actions

Outline and evaluate social support as a way of resisting social influence (6) Social support is the perception of assistance and solidarity from other people. The presence of others who dissent can be enough to get people to resist the social pressures to conform or obey. Such dissenters provide the participant with moral support and can influence their behaviour in social situations. Support for the role of social support comes from Asch. In a variation of his study Asch instructed one of the confederates to disagree with the majority. This confederate gave their verbal answer before the naïve participant. In this variation conformity dropped to 5.5%. This study suggests that the presence of supportive others is a major influence in whether people can resist social influence.

TASK 1: Harry has tried to answer the question ‘outline what research has shown about locus of control and independent behaviour (6 marks)’, but he has made some mistakes. Can you spot them? Ring all the mistakes and write the corrections in above, without referring back to your information pack Oliner and Oliner compared 126 people who had rescued jews with 406 who had not done so. They found the rescuers were likely to have a high internal locus of control. The fact that the study was carried out in a laboratory and not real life setting makes it a strong piece of evidence due to its high external validity. Elms and Milgram investigated the background of some of the disobedient participants from Milgram’s original study. They found that the disobedient participants had a high internal locus of control and scored higher on a scale that measured their social sensitivity. Williams and Warchal, in a study carried out on civil servants, found that when given a Milgram type task, those who obeyed did not score differently on Rotter’s locus of control scale, but they did have lower self-esteem. What would you give this answer out of 6?

Objectives To be able to outline what is meant by minority influence and give examples To be able to describe and evaluate the work of Moscovici. To apply minority influence to social change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbr1HmrplN0

Minority Influence What is meant by the term minority influence? 10 minutes Minority Influence What is meant by the term minority influence? What is meant by the terms consistency, commitment and flexibility when applied to minority influence? Give an example of an influential minority. Extension – Apply this knowledge to the vegan explosion.

Minority influence What is Minority Influence again?   This refers to when an individual, or a small group change the behaviour and/or attitudes of the larger group. It is the opposite of conformity

What makes a minority influential? Behavioural styles Consistency – the group should agree with each other in their message. They must also be consistent in the message they deliver and not keep changing their message. Flexibility – Although they need to be consistent they must not be dogmatic. This means they must listen to other people’s views and incorporate that into their message if they feel it needs to be considered. Commitment – To be committed to the cause the minority needs to make sacrifices for their cause. They should not be seen to be benefitting themselves. Think about the sacrifices the suffragettes made to influence the majority. Process of Change – Snow ball effect: faster the rate of conversion once the majority change over to the minority The process leads to INTERNALISATION

Compliance vs. Conversion Compliance is common in conformity studies (e.g. Asch) whereby the participants publicly conform to the group norms but privately reject them. Conversion involves how a minority can influence the majority. Conversion is different to compliance as it usually involves both public and private acceptance of a new view or behavior (i.e. internalization).

Task…. Read the study by Moscovici and complete your workbook page 27 Give two PEEL evaluation points for this study.

Evaluation Moscovici studied the influence of a consistent minority in a laboratory setting. Moscovici used 172 females from America in his study on the influence of a consistent minority Moscovici has also been criticised for deceiving his participants, as participants were told that they were taking part in a colour perception test

Moscovici used a bias sample of 172 female participants from America Moscovici used a bias sample of 172 female participants from America. As a result, we are unable to generalise the results to other populations, for example male participants, and we cannot conclude that male participants would respond to minority influence in the same way. Furthermore, research often suggests that females are more likely to conform and therefore further research is required to determine the effect of minority influence on male participants.

Moscovici has also been criticised for deceiving his participants, as participants were told that they were taking part in a colour perception test. This also means that Moscovici did not gain fully informed consent. Although it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, Moscovici’s experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results. If the participants were aware of the true aim, they might have displayed demand characteristics and acted differently.

Edward Sampson (1991) The participants in laboratory experiments are rarely 'real groups'. More often than not they are a collection of students who do not know each other and will probably never meet again. They are also involved in an artificial task.  As such they are very different from minority groups in the wider society who seek to change majority opinion. For example, members of women's rights, gay rights and animal rights organizations are very different from participants in laboratory experiments.  They operate in different settings with different constraints.  They often face much more determined opposition. They are committed to a cause; they often know each other, provide each other with considerable social support and sometimes devote their lives to changing the views of the majority. Power and status laboratory experiments are largely unable to represent and simulate the wide differences in power and status that often separate minorities and majorities.

Nemeth (1986) Some researchers have gone further and suggested that it is not just the appearance of flexibility and compromise which is important but actual flexibility and compromise. Nemeth (1986).The experiment was based on a mock jury in which groups of three participants and one confederate had to decide on the amount of compensation to be given to the victim of a ski-lift accident.  When the consistent minority (the confederate) argued for a very low amount and refused to change his position, he had no effect on the majority. However, when he compromised and moved some way towards the majority position, the majority also compromised and changed their view. This experiment questions the importance of consistency. The minority position changed, it was not consistent, and it was this change that apparently resulted in minority influence.

Quiz 1. What are the three features of a minority that make them influential? 2. If conformity leads to maintenance of the status quo what does minority influence lead to? 3. Outline what is meant by having an internal locus of control 4. Identify three explanations of obedience.

Exam questions Explain what is meant by the term minority influence (2 marks) Psychologists believe that minority influence involves consistency, commitment and flexibility. Explain what is meant by each of these factors in relation to obedience (3 marks)