social change

• what is social change?

  • changing society's behaviours over a period of time
• what is resistance to social influence?

  • the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or obey authority
  • influenced by situational and dispositional factors
• what are the the 2 explanations to resistance to social influence?

  • social support - situational
  • locus of control - dispositional
• what is social support?

  • situational explanation fro resisting social influence
  • presence of allies (not conforming or obeying) helps you remain independent and also not conform or obey
• how was social support shown in milgram's study?

  • obedience decreased to 10% when 2 other people (confederates) refused to obey
• how was social support shown in Asch's study?

  • only one ally reduced conformity from 32% to 5%
• social support strength

  • research support - ALLEN and LEVINE found independence increased to 64% with one dissenter in an experiment similar to Asch's whereas with no social support, only 3% resisted social influence
  • COUNTERPOINT: study showed social support isn't always effective when a dissenter has poor eyesight and thick glasses only 36% resisted
• what is locus of control?

  • dispositional explanation
  • internals - responsible for own actions
  • externals - outside forces control actions
• Rotter's internal-external

  • scale questionnaire identities the LOC continuum (scale) which identifies if you are high or low or internal or external scale
• locus of control strength

  • research support - HOLLAND
  • repeated Milgram's experiment and measured if participants has a high internal or external LOC
  • found 37% of internals dint continue to the highest shock level
  • increases validity of the LOC explanation of resisting obedience
• locus of control limitation

  • contradictory research - TWENGE
  • analysed findings from American LOC studies from a 40 year period
  • found people became more external and more obedient
  • suggest LOC theory that internals are more likely to resist lacks validity
• reasons people may resist the pressure to conform:

  • locus of control
  • social support
  • individual differences - high self esteem
  • cultural factors - different societies stress importance of determinism (more likely to resist)
  • composition of the group - if group members have less knowledge or status than the person its easier to resist
• social change strength

  • NOLAN found a reduction in energy consumption when they hung messages on doors saying residents in the area were reducing their energy use
  • suggests conformity can lead to social change so NSI is a valid explanation of social change occurring
• social change limitation

  • NSI doesn't always create social change
  • FOXCROFT found there was little reduction in students' alcohol consumption when a NSI approach was used
  • suggests NSI doesn't always produce social change