How groups can influence people
Drawing on appropriate evidence from Chapter 5, describe how groups can influence people in positive and in negative ways.
In this essay, I am going to describe how groups can influence people in a positive and in a negative ways. I will be using evidence drawn from Chapter 5 of the study text ‘’Starting with psychology’’ Spoors et al (2011). It is in a human nature to be a part of a social group. Belonging to a group, such as family, clubs, sport teams or group of friends, give us support, it make us feel good about ourselves, give us a sense of social identity. It brings meaning to our life, it make us feel like we belong. However, being a part of a group can also have a negative effect. Group pressure can cause us to behave in a way that we will not normally do. To support my argument I will use as an example evidence from Kondo’s story and as well Zimbardo and Asch experiments (Spoors et al 2011).
In our lifetime, we belong to many different social groups. Our social identity is based on the group we belong to, we enhance the status of our group in order to increase our self-image. We divide the world into people like ‘us’, who belong to our group, called the in-group, and those one who are different ‘them’, the out-group (Spoors et al 2011). Two psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner developed that theory. The theory argues that there are three mental processes involved in evaluating others as ‘them’ and us’ the first one is a social categorisation. We categorize other people and ourselves in order to understand and identify them. The second process is a social identification. When we know which group we belong to, we start behaving by the norms of our group. The last process is social comparison. After we categorize ourselves with a group, we start to compare our group with other groups. To maintain our self-esteem we will compare our group favourably with other groups.
An experiment carried out by Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues (1971)
In this essay, I am going to describe how groups can influence people in a positive and in a negative ways. I will be using evidence drawn from Chapter 5 of the study text ‘’Starting with psychology’’ Spoors et al (2011). It is in a human nature to be a part of a social group. Belonging to a group, such as family, clubs, sport teams or group of friends, give us support, it make us feel good about ourselves, give us a sense of social identity. It brings meaning to our life, it make us feel like we belong. However, being a part of a group can also have a negative effect. Group pressure can cause us to behave in a way that we will not normally do. To support my argument I will use as an example evidence from Kondo’s story and as well Zimbardo and Asch experiments (Spoors et al 2011).
In our lifetime, we belong to many different social groups. Our social identity is based on the group we belong to, we enhance the status of our group in order to increase our self-image. We divide the world into people like ‘us’, who belong to our group, called the in-group, and those one who are different ‘them’, the out-group (Spoors et al 2011). Two psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner developed that theory. The theory argues that there are three mental processes involved in evaluating others as ‘them’ and us’ the first one is a social categorisation. We categorize other people and ourselves in order to understand and identify them. The second process is a social identification. When we know which group we belong to, we start behaving by the norms of our group. The last process is social comparison. After we categorize ourselves with a group, we start to compare our group with other groups. To maintain our self-esteem we will compare our group favourably with other groups.
An experiment carried out by Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues (1971)