Social Influence Examples & Psychology | Study Coach
GCSE Psychology: What is Psychology and Social Influence? Psychology is the study of Mind and Behaviour, the study of Psychology makes use of scientific procedures. Psychology is therefore categorised as a science. In studying psychology, students should expect to conduct research (qualitative and quantitative) carry out experiments and use measurement to predict human behaviour. From conducting experiments and case studies, leading psychologists have created their own unique approaches/perspectives to provide us with knowledge and understanding of the human mind and behaviour. Example of approaches: Social Learning, Behaviourism, Cognitive, Humanism, Psychoanalysis, Biological. There are different branches of psychology, for example: Developmental Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology.
The GCSE curriculum will introduce you to a number of psychological approaches, but examination boards do differ, so when studying keep the focus on your particular board, for example: aqa.org.uk ocr.org.uk qualifications.pearson.com Let’s now consider an aspect of Social Psychology.
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
The study of Social Influence falls under the category of social psychology.
What is Social Influence? The answer is that Social Influence provides an explanation of how the presence of others (group pressure) can influence an individual’s attitudes and beliefs. Social Influence can impact on the way someone will think, feel and behave. For example an influential social media personality can influence their followers attitudes towards life, they can influence followers beliefs, determine how followers feel, think and behave. Majority (group pressure) can therefore influence an individual and so can Minority (a social influencer) influence a group of people. To be a social media influencer or simply to be able to influence school friends, acquaintances, strangers or the general public, is to occupy a powerful position. Here is an example of Social Influence:
SOCIAL INFLUENCE EXAMPLE – BEHAVIOUR
“Tina is first in the queue for lunch and she decides to have a salad. Tina’s friends join the queue and chose sandwiches for lunch. After seeing this Tina decides to have a sandwich instead of a salad”. Now, the question is why did Tina have a change of mind and decided not to have a salad after noticing that all her friends had chosen sandwiches. Social Influence would suggest that Tina is unsure about her own judgement about what to eat at lunchtime and so she accepts the action of her friends. If the friendship was recently formed it is possible that Tina is still seeking approval and acceptance from her new friends and therefore not wanting to be the odd one out Tina decides not to have a salad but instead to join her friends and choose sandwich for lunch.
How the presence of others can have an impact on our choice of food might seem to be a trivial example, but if we can be so easily influenced in regard to our taste and preference, being influenced might become the norm and impact on more serious issues.
SOCIAL INFLUENCE EXAMPLE – HOW YOU FEEL & THINK
Example: Henry and four of his friends witnessed a fellow student being bullied. The next day during break time Henry told his friends that he felt sad and upset with himself for not reporting the bullying, since bullying is wrong and being a bystander to bullying is more or less supporting bullying. Furthermore, Henry told his friends that they should report the incident to a teacher. Henry was somewhat surprised when his friends told him that he should stop acting like a baby and that he would be a snitch if he reported the incident to a teacher. The boys told Henry that they would no longer be friends if Henry reported the bullying. Henry reflected on what was said and decided not to report the bullying incident.
From the example it should be quite clear that Henry was feeling upset in regard to the bullying incident, his conscience was bothering him. Henry felt that he had a moral duty to report the incident. On the other hand Henry’s friends felt that the incident shouldn’t be reported and that Henry would be acting as an informer (snitch).
You should apply your knowledge of social influence to explain the process of group pressure and how pressure from Henry’s group of friends influenced Henry to change his mind about reporting the bullying incident. When applying psychological knowledge on social influence do consider whether the pressure from others (in this case Henry’s friends) should be categorised as ‘real group pressure’ or ‘imagined group pressure’.
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