CONFORMITY Psychology During this session Identify the differences

CONFORMITY Psychology

During this session ◦ Identify the differences between minority and majority influences ◦ Discuss some of the research conducted in relation to conformity ◦ Highlight key terms used

Classic Studies of Social influence ◦ Social influence studies are some of the most well-known in social psychology. a) Because they capture the essence of what social psychology is. b) Because they provide some of the most interesting, powerful and challenging findings in the field. c) Because they seem particularly (and alarmingly) relevant to our everyday lives. d) Because as a result of the above they demand some satisfactory theoretical analysis (explanation).

Majority and minority influence ◦ Majority influence: a form of social influence where people adopt the behaviours, attitudes and values of other members of a reference group ◦ Minority influence: a form of social influence where a persuasive minority exerts pressure to change the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours of the majority.

The difference between Majority and Minority ◦ Moscovivi (1980( states that majorities and minorities achieve influence through different processes. ◦ Majority involves public compliance, they are more concerned with how they appear in front of others than the issue itself. ◦ Minorities are aiming for conversion rather than compliance. They hope that by focusing on the issue the majority will take notice. This in turn may start the process of conversion.

Why do people yield to minority influence? ◦ There are many explanations a few of which are: ◦ Consistency – There are 2 types of consistency ◦ Intra-individual – where a person maintains a consistent position over time ◦ Inter-individual- where there is agreement among members of the minority group

The Snowball effect ◦ Van Avarmaet (1996) ◦ The term is used to describe what can happen in a minority influence ◦ Once a few members of the majority start to move towards the minority the influence begins to gather momentum

Group Membership ◦ Hogg and Vaughan (1998) say that we are most likely to be influenced by people we identify to be like us ( our in-group) ◦ An example of this could be the attitude of straight men towards gay men ◦ The attitudes of straight men towards gay men mecome more liberal if other straight men (the in group) express liberal attitudes

Individual activity ◦ Give 2 reasons why people conform ◦ Why do people yield to minority influence ◦ What do you understand by the terms Social influence, conformity and minority influence?

Asch (195) Example ◦ http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Ny. DDy. T 1 l. Dh. A

Moscovici (1969) ◦ Are these studies minority or majority?

Group activity ◦ Name one thing you have learned within the session ◦ The catch is that you have only 10 seconds to do it ◦ http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=OHU 80 Bsabx. Q

Why did you do that? ◦ Why did you take part in that activity? ◦ What was wrong with it? ◦ How did it make you feel?

This is due to:

Overview ◦ Continuation from last week: ◦ Next week: Obedience !