3.2.5 Majority Vs Minority Influence
Other influential experiments in social influence include majority and minority influence. In majority influence, individuals compare personal responses with the sources, without considering their own judgement; this then leads them to comply with the viewpoint of the majority of those around them. This can also be known as group pressure and is similar to Herd behaviour (Doms and Avermaet, 1979; Latané & Wolf, 1981). However, in minority influence the individual attempts to validify an opposing response, meaning that as they do so, they consider their judgement and unlike in majority influence they instinctively convert to the viewpoint of the minority (Doms and Avermaet, 1979; Moscovici, 1980). Martin et al. (2006) later examined the effects of majority and minority influence and concluded that, when attitudes are changed by minority influences they are more likely to have a consistent behavioural intention, compared to if the attitudes were changed by majority influence. Suggesting minority influence produces behaviour that is easier to predict than majority influence.
3.2.6 Conditioning
Conditioning is a behavioural theory and process, where an individual’s response to a stimulus becomes more predictable and frequent within a particular environment, usually as a result of a reward (Port and Finnamore, 2007; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014). This reflects the Song et al. (2012) explanation stated previously, which explains that obedience can increase if an individual is keeping an action the same in order to gain a reward. The leading conditioning experiment is Pavlov’s dog, where the dog was classically conditioned. This is a learning type where a neutral stimulus, for example, a bell, beco...
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...o be compensated for any effect the event has on the Prices and the Completion Date or a Key Date’. Eggleston (2005) and Rowlinson (2012) both state that the CE procedure within the NEC3 is profoundly different to the variation and change procedures in traditional contracts, such as the JCT.
Assessing the time and financial impacts of CE’s involves strict time procedures, in which the contractor has to notify, implement and quote. Within the contract, to ensure these impacts are not assessed retrospectively, the contractor only has eight weeks once he becomes aware of a matter that may become a CE, to notify it. Time limits can be extended or shortened on agreement with the contractor and PM. However, if these limits are extended, both parties are entitled to the same time extension (Trebes and Mitchell, 2005).
The CE procedure is outlined in Figure 4 (Page 27).
The two main forms of conditioning, are classical conditioning (learning by association), and operant condition (learning from consequences).Classical conditioning, is the learning process in which one is conditioned (learns) to respond to a neutral stimulus as if it were a meaningful stimulus. In operant conditioning, learning occurs through associations made between a behavior and the consequence that follows.
Minority is a broad term that classifies my family and me. This term can mean something bad and something good, depending on who’s perceiving the term. For me, personally it is a little bit of both. Being part of the minority group, it can and has been a barrier in my educational pursuit. However, it does not stop me from trying to reach my goals, it is like a motivation.
There are quite a few different minority groups in today’s society. Minority groups are all unique in there own way. With groups rapidly growing as well as groups decreasing in size minority groups go through change in areas like discrimination, society, and within the criminal justice system. Discrimination, society, and within the criminal justice system are all unique to different minority groups in their own ways, but most of them all have things in common as well.
Classical Conditioning was a phenomenon that a man named Ivan Pavlov explored in the twentieth-century. His work laid the foundation for many other psychologists such as John Watson. Pavlov’s idea came when he seized on an incidental observation. He noticed putting food in a dogs mouth caused salvation. However, the dog not only salivated to the food it began to also salivate to mere sight of the food, or the food dish. He began experimenting; first he slid the food presented the food by sliding the food bowl and blowing meat powder into the dogs mouth at the same exact moment. They paired it with a neutral stimuli event the dog could see but did not associate it with food (Myers, 2014, p.256). Food in the mouth automatically, unconditionally triggers the salivary reflex. Pavlov called drooling the unconditioned response and the food the unconditioned stimulus. Salvation in response to a tone is learned, it is conditioned upon the dogs associating the tone with the food it is called conditioned response (Myers, 2014, p.256). The stimulus that used to be neutral is the conditioned stimulus. I found it interesting and relating to everyday life because my dog often does the same. We keep his food in the garage so opening the garage door would be the conditioned stimulus. As soon as the garage door opens my dog begins to salivate which is the conditioned response. Whereas,
Habituation is an example of conditioning. Most behavioral modification relies on conditioning of one form or another, whether by pairing a desired result with a reward, or by discouraging an unwanted behavior by removing a reward (typically attention of one form or another). Reinforcement of conditioning is accomplished through consistent reaction to behavior either rewarding or discouraging behaviors that are desirable or undesirable. Desensitization takes this technique to its extreme by flooding the animal with the stimulus in increasing stages until it stops
Ivan Pavlov developed a theory called classical conditioning which proposes that learning process occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. Classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex like associating the food with the bell in Pavlov experiment. In classical conditioning, behavior is learnt by association where a stimulus that was originally neutral can become a trigger for substance use or cravings due to repeated associations between those stimuli and substance use (Pavlov, 1927).
Solomon Asch’s experiment in “Opinions and Social Pressure” studied a subject’s ability to yield to social pressure when placed within a group of strangers. His research helped illustrate how groups encourage conformity. During a typical experiment, members of the group were asked by the experimenter to claim two obvious mismatched lines were identical. The single individual who was not privy to this information was the focal point of the experiment. Twelve out of eighteen times the unsuspecting individual went along with the majority, dispelling his beliefs in favor of the opinions of the group.
The strength of classical conditioning is that it can help to explain all aspects of human behavior. Any of behavior can broke down into stimulus-response association, so that according to the classical conditioning, conditioned stimulus will lead conditioned response to occur, then the scientist can observe and determine the behavior (McLeod, 2014). In the case of Pavlovian conditioning, he found that when the conditioned stimulus (bell) was paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) was presented to the dog, it would start to salivate. After a number of repeated this procedures, Pavlov tried to ring his bell by its own...
This essay concerns social influence in general. Aspects of social influence as such as majority influence and minority influence will be discussed in terms of their underlying psychological processes and how they differ. Majority influence or conformity refers to the desire to belong or to fit in within a particular group which involves adopting certain attributes, behaviour and attitudes of a particular group. As a result individuals consequently experience group pressure (in Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). Minority influence on the other hand, refers to the influence that the minority exert over the majority in that the majority come to accept the beliefs and behaviours of a minority (in Baron et al. 2008).
Income Shocks and Ethnic Group Bias Motivation: Ethnic group bias can have a strong impact on the functioning of ethnically diverse communities. It might increase the likelihood of conflict and limit cooperation among members of different ethnic groups. This is especially dangerous when one ethnic group has power over the others. Conflict, as Rohner, Thoenig, and Zilibotti (2012) show, results in lower inter-ethnic trust. This can essentially be a vicious circle, ethnic bias fuels ethnic conflict, which, again, results in more ethnic bias etc.
This is selective reinforcement. Pavlov and his dogs were and excellent example of operant conditioning. Pavlov rang a bell when it was time for the dogs to eat; eventually the dogs associated the bell with food. Each time the bell rang the dogs salivated. On the other hand, N.Chomsky who was a nativist argued that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD).
This provides an example of conformity, whereby individuals adjust their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours in ways that are consistent with the norms of the group (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). One of the main reasons people conform is because they have the desire to be accepted by the majority (Deutsch & Gerard, 1995). This is demonstrated in Asch’s (1955) study where participants were asked to decide which of the three lines had the same length as the standard line. All members of the group except one were confederates and were instructed beforehand to give wrong answers in most trials (Asch, 1955). The results show that when individuals perform this task independently, they tend to be accurate almost all the time.
One type of effect that can tip any decision balance to another side is peer pressure. In an experiment done by a psychologist Youtuber called Vsauce, he demonstrates this phenomenon in a shocking experiment called the Ash experiment. He puts a participant with a chosen group of paid actors. Their job is simple, to match the length of a stick drawn on a board with three sticks labeled 1 2 3. At first, the paid actors choose the correct answer to gain the participant’s trust. After round three, the actors began to lie and choose an incorrect answer. At first, the participant did not follow the crowd and stick to the correct answer, but two rounds later, she began to follow the actor’s choice blindly. This experiment is a clear example how peer pressure can sway
This not only relates to the overall idea of the individual’s actions based on group influence but also alludes to the sub idea of the group of the classroom and how the individual does not want to be seen as lesser by giving a wrong answer. In doing this the group influences the individual to go along with the main idea of the group. In this experiment when given three lines to decide which one is more closely related to the original line it was found that the individual, that was part of the experimental group, would often pick the wrong answer to go along with the group (Baron, 2012). The influence stems from the group all choosing the wrong answer then the individual begins to believe that there is something wrong with the answer they had originally chosen due to the fact that the group overall has made a majority answer. The group itself can present tangible influence when they look to the individual to answer. That moment when the group looks toward the individual is where the influence becomes more concrete and the individual’s own beliefs begin to waiver because they believe that perhaps they are wrong and the group is correct
The two researchers that really shaped this belief are Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. Ivan Pavlov researched the digestive systems of dogs to discover the classical conditioning process, which demonstrated that this learning process could be used to make an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. The two elements are then known as the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response. B.F. Skinner came up with the concept of operant conditioning, which showed the effect of punishments and reinforcements on behavior. Through operant conditioning, a connection is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. The basic principles of behaviorism are widely used today, in many situations ranging from parenting to education.