The information below indicates the sequence by which social change occurs – take note of the real life links.
Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility. The role of social influence processes in social change.
AO1, Description – Resistance of Social Influence:Definition of Resistance of Social Influence- The ways in which individuals attempt to withstand perceived attempts to threaten freedom of choice. For what reasons are able to stay independent and not conform or obey. There are two explanations of why people resist Social Influence:
Explanations of resistance to social influence
Explanations of Resistance to Social Influence Definition- The ways in which individuals attempt to withstand perceived attempts to threaten freedom of choice. For what reasons are able to stay independent and not conform or obey.
Variations of Milgram’s Study into Obedience
Milgram carried out a number of variations of his original obedience study in order to see how changes to; location, the way the authority figure is dressed, participant personality and proximity can affect the degree of obedience to an ‘authority figure.’
Explanations of obedience
It is easy to deny personal responsibility when orders come from a figure of authority because it can be assumed that they will take ultimate responsibility. In these instances, we become ‘agents’ of an external authority. According to Milgram, obedience occurs as a result of a conflict between 2 opposing sets of demands:
Research into Obedience Milgram (1964)
One of the most influential pieces of research into obedience is undoubtedly from Stanley Milgram (his electric shock study). Milgram was the son of Polish refugees and wanted to show that, when in the presence of an authority figure, any individual would follow instructions blindly rather than stand up to an authority figure and resist their commands.
Conformity to Social Roles Zimabardo’s Prison Study
Conformity to Social Roles Definition – the parts individuals play as members of a social group, which meet the expectations of that situation.
Variables Affecting Conformity
Variables Affecting Conformity: After Asch’s original study, he decided to carry out a number of further investigations to see which variables would affect the levels of conformity among participants. Have a look at the table below – the situational variables are the factors that Asch manipulated in the experiment to see if they would affect the levels of conformity.
Explanation of Conformity NSI and ISI
AO1, Description: Any explanation of conformity has to make reference to the two types of conformity – Internalisation and Compliance. For your exam, not only do you need to be able to define these two types of conformity, you also need to be able to describe why these types of conformity occur. Thankfully, one explanation/theory can be used to explain both these types of conformity. This theory is call The Dual-Processing Dependency Model.
Conformity Types; Compliance, Internalisation, Identification
The focus of this page is to look at the different types of conformity including; Compliance, Internalisation and Identification. We will focus on the key definitions associated with conformity and will take a look at the key pieces of research in this area of Psychology.
