KLA210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Minority Influence, Door Door, Ingratiation
Social Psychology week 8: Conformity and Social Change
Why do we conform to group norms
How CAN groups bring about social change
Allport: “social psychology is the scientific attempt to explain how thought feeling
and behaviors of individual are influenced by others…”
- eg. Middle Eastern peace conference
- Once someone engages in a behaviour, when people are anxious or excited,
they are particularly prone to social influence
- What is a group:
oMore than just an aggregate of individuals
oDoes it require the existence of a formal, or an implicit social structure
Not really
But we apply some sort of structure
Because we are social animals, we are wired to do this
Need the feeling that we belong and are member of something
So we apply meaning to that
oMembers must have purpose for ascribing to a group
oSomething happening within us that we ascribe some sort of
individuals
oAs soon as we are allocated when ascribe meanings
oFace to face interaction
Don’t need to
Don’t need to meet or talk, all we need is to know that we are
apart of the same group
Can still have meaningful exchanges
oBrown:
A group exists when 2 or more people define themselves as
members and when its existence is recognized by at least one
other
- Social influence:
o“a change in the judgments, opinions or attitudes of an individual as a
result of being exposed to the judgments opinions and attitudes of
other people
may be real influence or imagined influence
anything that we change as a result of being exposed to those of
other people
oexperiment in which the actual experiment is the behavior of the
person while they wait for a fake study
confederate
how often would participants rub face, or shake foot
IV: confederate did either of these
If confederate does some of these, then participant does too
Elicited by watching others do so
Real life example, children imitations
Someone who is important to us particularly: evolved to do this
in even meaningless behaviours
- Power and influence:
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oPublic compliance: a superficial change, often as a result of
persuasion/coercion
oBased on power
If someone ask us and they are in a more powerful position
than us
oConformity: a genuine change, that persists even in the absence of
surveillance
oBased on subjective validity of social norms
Conform with something if those norms is a group have
subjective validity to us
If we think they are important to how we see ourselves
oObedience: response to direct order from someone of high status or
authority
Change in behaviour (not necessarily attitude)
Different to compliance: which is not a direct order
More of a request, this may not even be direct
oSources of power for persuasion:
Reward power: the ability to give or promise rewards for
compliance
Coercive power: the ability to give or threaten punishment for
non-compliance
The law
Embedded in thinking the police have this form of
power over us
The ability of someone to punish you when you don’t
comply
Informational power: the targets belief that the influencer has
more information than oneself
Softer form
One person has more knowledge than another
Imbalance in knowledge between two people
Expert power: the targets belief that the influencer has
generally greater expertise and knowledge than oneself
Looks like the same as informational, but this describes
the status that the person with lower power ascribes to
the person with higher power
Eg. Sports TV experts, main reason why they are
experts is because someone else tells you they are an
expert
Legitimate power: the targets belief that the influencer is
authorized be a recognized power structure to command and
make decisions
Eg. Following a policemen’s orders then you are
following this form of power
Someone else has been legitimatize by someone else
All about what kind of power to ascribe to someone
Referent power: identification with, attraction to or respect for
the source of influence
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Abstract
Someone might have power over you, solely on the
basis of the fact you might find them attractive, have
respect for them, etc.
This is the only source of power
This might be why you give your seat to elders on a bus
oPartially other forms of power too
The degree to which you are willing to follow an order/comply,
has to do with what sort of power they have
- Norms: implicit rules that guide behaviour in groups
oSherif: believed social norms are mainly important when situations are
uncertain
starting point is other peoples behaviour to model our own
behaviour
to work out what is appropriate in situations
tend to adopt central positions:
take the middle point
this makes it seem more correct
moral judgments as well as judgment about where a
point is located and moves
oFixation points
Put people in a dark room and showed them this and
didn’t tell them this naturally moves and occurs
An uncertain situation
Interested in what people agreed upon in terms of how
much they thought the point was moving
If people did on their own- they stuck to their own norm
After doing alone, they did in groups
Other members called out their estimates
Used estimates as their frame of reference
A group norm emerged that differed from the
individuals norm
Estimates converged around the group norm, around the
central point
If they start in groups, later when they are alone this
group norm is still used
People adopt and use norms when they don’t know
what is going on
Even in ambiguous situations, people develop a stable internal
frame of reference, but abandon this in favour of a group
developed frame
Once group developed frame is adopted, it persists, even after
group disperses
Not really conformity: because there was no existing norm
Jacobs and Campbell: gradually replaces confederates with
naïve subjects
The established norm persisted
Confederates always called out same estimates
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Social psychology week 8: conformity and social change. Allport: social psychology is the scientific attempt to explain how thought feeling and behaviors of individual are influenced by others eg. middle eastern peace conference. Once someone engages in a behaviour, when people are anxious or excited, they are particularly prone to social influence. What is a group: more than just an aggregate of individuals, does it require the existence of a formal, or an implicit social structure. But we apply some sort of structure. Because we are social animals, we are wired to do this. Need the feeling that we belong and are member of something. Don"t need to meet or talk, all we need is to know that we are apart of the same group. Can still have meaningful exchanges: brown: A group exists when 2 or more people define themselves as members and when its existence is recognized by at least one other.
