1. Social influence in everyday life

2. Syllabus
Explanations of independent behaviour, including locus of control, how people resist pressures to conform and resist pressures to obey authority
How social influence research helps us to understand social change; the role of minority influence in social change

3. locus of control
"A locus of control orientation is a belief about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation)." (Zimbardo, 1985)
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4. Locus of Control
Locus of control in social psychology refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Understanding of the concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and has since become an important aspect of personality studies.
Individuals with a high internal locus of control believe that events result primarily from their own behaviour and actions. Those with a low internal locus of control believe that powerful others, fate, or chance primarily determine events.
Those with a high internal locus of control have better control of their behaviour, tend to exhibit more political behaviours, and are more likely to attempt to influence other people than those with a low external locus of control. Those with a high internal locus of control are more likely to assume that their efforts will be successful. They are more active in seeking information and knowledge concerning their situation.
One's "locus" (Latin for "place" or "location") can either be internal (meaning the person believes that they control their life) or external (meaning they believe that their environment, some higher power, or other people control their decisions and their life).

5. Do You Have an External or Internal Locus of Control?
Outlook 1
I often feel that I have little control over my life and what happens to me.
People rarely get what they deserve.
It isn't worth setting goals or making plans because too many things can happen that are outside of my control.
Life is a game of chance.
Individuals have little influence over the events of the world.
If the statements above best reflect your view on life, then you probably tend to have an external locus of control.

6. Do You Have an External or Internal Locus of Control?
Outlook 2
If you work hard and commit yourself to a goal, you can achieve anything.
There is no such thing as fate or destiny.
If you study hard and are well-prepared, you can do well on exams.
 Luck has little to do with success; it's mostly a matter of dedication and effort.
In the long run, people tend to get what they deserve in life.
If the statements above best reflect your outlook on life, then you most likely have an internal locus of control.

7. Is one bad or good.
A person who has not succeeded in sport with a high internal locus of control may feel they have failed when it may be just physiology.

8. Those with an internal locus of control:
Feel confident in the face of challenges
Tend to be physically healthier
Report being happier and more independent
Often achieve greater success in the workplace
Internal locus of control is often used synonymously with "self-determination" and "personal agency." Research has suggested that men tend to have a higher internal locus of control than women and that locus of control tends to become more internal as people grow older. Experts have found that, in general, people with an internal locus of control tend to be better off.

9. Those with an external locus of control:
Blame outside forces for their circumstances
Often credit luck or chance for any successes
Don't believe that they can change their situation through their own efforts
Frequently feel hopeless or powerless in the face of difficult situations
Are more prone to experiencing learned helplessness

10. Social Change
How social influence research helps us to understand social change; the role of minority influence in social change

11. Research into minority influence
Moscovici et al (1969) Moscovici investigated whether or not a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a visual perception task. Groups of 6 participants were asked to estimate the colour of 36 slides. All of the slides were blue, but of varying shades, and 2 of the participants were confederates of the experimenter. There were two conditions: in the consistent condition the 2 confederates consistently stated that the slides were green not blue; and in the inconsistent condition they stated the slides were green on 24 of the 36 trials, and blue on the other 12 trials. Participants in the consistent condition conformed to the minority on 8.4% of the trials (compared with 1.3% in the inconsistent condition), and 32% of participants conformed at least once. This shows that a consistent minority can influence members of a majority to make an incorrect judgement.
Moscovici et al (1969)

12. Behavioural styles of influential minorities
According to Moscovici et al (1969) an influential minority must possess several behavioural characteristics if it is to succeed in creating social change. These include consistency, commitment and persuasiveness.
Consistency. This characteristic can be seen in Moscovici’s (1985) research into minority influence in which the consistent minority was almost eight times more successful than the inconsistent one.
Commitment. A committed minority shows the majority just how much it believes in its cause. The Suffragettes, for example, committed many public acts of protest and many members were arrested on many occasions, showing that they were committed to the cause of female equality to the point that they were willing to accept criminal records and imprisonment.
Persuasiveness. The ability to put across a persuasive argument that makes sense. If a majority member is to convert to the minority viewpoint, then they must believe and internalise the argument so that it becomes their own. Public speeches and intelligent use of language are examples of persuasive techniques.

13. The power of minority influence
Minorities are essential to change in society. If minorities did not exist and were not influential then we would simply go along with the majority all the time, and there would never be any change in society, no new ideas (innovation) would enter our culture, no unfairness would be challenged, and society would never improve. There are many examples in history of minority influence leading to social change (e.g. the Suffragettes, civil rights movements in the USA, Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid in South Africa, and many more), and even a lone dissenter can be a catalyst for social change (Rosa Parkes for example). Even when a minority is wrong it can have an important influence in creating productive thinking among majority members of a society and social change can result (Nemeth, 1986). An example of a ‘wrong’ minority is a group that uses terrorism to get its message heard. Although the terrorist group may be dismissed as extremist and evil, its message gets heard by many and inequalities or injustices may be addressed by the majority. THE TIPPING POINT

14. Why do people yield to minority influence?
The snowball effect The snowball effect (Van Avermaet, 1996) describes one way in which minorities convert majorities. Members of the majority slowly move towards the minority, and as the minority grows in size it gradually picks up momentum so that more and more majority members convert to the minority opinion. Eventually the minority grows into a snowball so large that it becomes the majority. In-groups and out-groups In-group is a term used to describe people like us, and an out-group consists of people that do not share the same characteristics as us. Hogg & Vaughan (1998) argue that we are most likely to be influenced by members of our in-group than we are by members of an out-group. An example might be the British government of the early 1900s who, as it consisted predominately of upper class male MPs, was more likely to listen to the message being put forward by Suffragette women if the Suffragettes were also upper class. Social cryptoamnesia When social change occurs in a society, the attitude or opinion becomes an integral part of the society’s culture, and the source of the minority influence that led to it is generally forgotten. Very few women who vote in the UK consciously thank the Suffragettes for the fact that they can vote, rather women voting is now a normal and expected part of society. This forgetting of the source of social change is called social cryptoamnesia (Perez et al, 1995).

15. How do minorities become majorities?
When a minority has an effective message, it creates conflict in the minds of the majority.
The majority are forced to examine the minority message, and may internalise it.
When the message is internalised by majority members, they are said to have been converted.
The message is then passed on to many other majority members through the snowball effect until the minority becomes the majority.
In time, the source of the message is forgotten and all that remains is the new social norm. This is called social cryptoamnseia (Perez et al, 1995)

16. Examples of minority influence leading to social change
Anti-apartheid in South Africa Many years of discrimination against black South Africans by the white government was ultimately ended by the actions of the African National Congress led by Nelson Mandela. The ANC used many techniques to get their message across in a consistent, persuasive and committed way. Nelson Mandela famously showed his own level of commitment to ending apartheid by leading the ANC when he knew he could be imprisoned for doing so, and in fact he spent 27 years in prison as a result.

17. Examples of minority influence leading to social change
The Suffragettes  In late 19th and early 20th century Britain, members of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies campaigned for women’s rights including the right to vote. The women were mostly middle class and educated so they were able to put forward a persuasive message. They showed commitment through their protests, in particular through their hunger strikes when imprisoned for their protests. In response the the hunger strikes, the government introduced the Cat and Mouse Act which meant that the women could be imprisoned until they had starved themselves long enough to be of concern to their health, at which point they were released and then reimprisoned once they had regained their strength, a process which was often repeated many times.

18. In Short
Moscovici et al – slides - 6 with 2 confederates - shows that a consistent minority can influence members of a majority to make an incorrect judgement.
Consistency, commitment and persuasiveness
Internalisation, Snowball effect, In-groups and out-groups, Social cryptoamnesia (Perez).

19. Question
A Level exam tips Answering exam questions (PSYA2 AQA A specification) What are the implications for social change of research into social influence? (6 marks)

20. Answer
6 AO1 marks. Define social change. Discuss minority influence by outlining Moscovici’s colour perception experiment. State the characteristics required for a minority to be effective. Explain the snowball effect and social crypto amnesia. Link what you have discussed to real examples of social change.