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Conformity And Minority Influence

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Conformity And Minority Influence
Compare and contrast majority and minority influence

This paper will review the research conducted in social influence, specifically majority and minority influence, why people conform and the factors that make them more likely to conform. Conformity is defined as “a form of social influence in which a person yields to group pressure in the absence of any explicit order or request from another person to comply, as in the Asch experiment” (Colman, or Dictionary of Psychology, 2009). Conformity encompasses majority and minority influence. Kelman (1958) proposed three types of conformity for influence of a majority; Compliance, internalisation and identification. Compliance refers to an individual changing their public opinion or behaviour
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Colman, A. (2009). Conformity. A Dictionary of Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Crisp, R., & Turner, R. (2012). Essential social psychology (13th ed.). London: SAGE.
6. Eagly, A. (1983). Gender and social influence: A social psychological analysis. American Psychologist, 38(9), 971-981. doi:10.1037//0003-066x.38.9.971
7. Eagly, A., & Chrvala, C. (1986). SEX DIFFERENCES IN CONFORMITY: STATUS AND GENDER ROLE INTERPRETATIONS. Psychology Of Women Quarterly, 10(3), 203-220. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1986.tb00747.x
8. Faculty.babson.edu,. (2014). Asch: Famous Soloman Asch Conformity Experiment. Retrieved 3 December 2014, from http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/asch_conform.html
9. Gleitman, H., Gross, J., & Reisberg, D. (2011). Psychology. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
10. Gross, R. (2010). Psychology (6th ed.). London: Hodder Education.
11. Kelman, H. (1958). Compliance, identification, and internalization three processes of attitude change. Journal Of Conflict Resolution, 2(1), 51-60. doi:10.1177/002200275800200106
12. Moore, W. (2014). Gender Differences in Conformity. Faculty.rhodes.edu. Retrieved 4 December 2014, from
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In each case where you describe a particular study it is very easy to follow how the study was conducted, and you have provided a good amount of detail without including superfluous information. As I mention you could link some of your shorter sentences together, as this would improve the flow of your paper in some areas (and also allow you to be more succinct in what you are presenting). In addition, when you are talking about some of these studies it would be good to include more critical analysis as well. What is ‘wrong’ with some of these studies – what are the weaknesses/limitations? Adding this information will help you to make a stronger argument. You should also make sure that whatever your argument is (i.e. that minority influence is stronger than majority influence) that you have made this clear in your answer, so that your conclusion follows logically from what you have written. Otherwise you have a strong paper with a good analysis of the evidence, and your references look very good (with a few small exceptions that I have noted). I think you’re almost there – just make a few amendments and you will have a strong

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