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Keith E Rice's Integrated SocioPsychology Blog & Pages

Aligning, integrating and applying the behavioural sciences

Christopher Spencer’

Social Change #2

Part 2 Lower Left Quadrant and Minority Influence Social heroes usually can achieve little or nothing on their own. They need collaborators and, if they are leaders, they need followers. This means the social hero has to convert others to their cause and, thus, create a minority influence. The more people are converted to the cause, the more conversion to the cause (as a process) picks up momentum – the ‘snowball effect’ (Eddy Van Avermaet, 2001). Eventually the minority grows into a snowball so large that it becomes the majority. The social hero in the Upper Left is influencing culture and thought in the Lower Left. So how does a social hero convert others and how does a minority gain enough converts to become a majority? Giddens posits that people in general have a deep-seated need for ‘ontological security’, that their world is orderly, stable and predictable. Therefore, by their actions most people most of the time reinforce the existing culture and structure, There is a sort-of natural resistance to change. Just how resistant to change will vary as to which vMEMES dominate in a culture; individual resistance will also vary as to where that person is on their Dimensions of Temperament. People… Read More

Conformity & Obedience #2

PART 2 More research into conformity  Timothy Williams & Shunya Sogon (1984) looked at Japanese students belonging to a sports club and found that normative influence was much greater when participants cared about the opinions of other group members. The higher level of conformity found by Williams & Sogon may reflect the collectivistic nature of Japanese society and, therefore, may not be generalisable beyond similar societies. However, it shows clearly the influence of fitting in with those you with whom you have a belonging connection – that connection fulfilling the needs of the PURPLE vMEME. Supporting this, Paul McGhee &, Richard Teevan (1967) found that students high in the need for affiliation were more likely to conform. Dominic Abrams et al (1990) found an in-group influence, proposing that their 1st-year Psychology students would show more conformity if the other group members were perceived to be in the same in-group (Psychology students from a nearby university) than if they were from an out-group (Ancient History students from the same university). Accordingly, there was conformity on 58% of trials when in the presence of an in-group but only 8% with an out-group. Morton Bogdonoff et al (1962) found arousal levels were high in all participants once they were faced with the opposing judgements of… Read More

Robber’s Cave

Relaunched: 4 March 2018 The Robber’s Cave study is on a par with Stanley Milgrim’s ‘Obedience Experiments’ and Philip Zimbardo’s infamous prison study at Stanford University (Craig Haney, Curtis Bank & Philip Zimbardo, 1973), both for its sheer audaciousness and what it tells us about situational pressures to produce normative influence. Muzafer Sherif had been a growing force in the development of Social Psychology ever since his ‘autokinetic effect’ experiments in 1935 had developed the concept of conformity that would come to be known as informational influence. In fact, Sherif could be considered one of the founders of Social Psychology. His work was also highly thought of by interactionist sociologists, becoming the first psychologist to receive the Cooley-Mead Award for contributions to Social Psychology from the American Sociological Association. By the end of the 1940s his interest in understanding social processes, particularly social norms and social conflict had led him to conceive of developing a field experiment in which pubescent boys would be nurtured into forming 2 distinctive teams with strong group identities to see how conflict between the 2 groups could be exacerbated and then reduced. This would be the basis of the famous and challenging Robber’s Cave study of 1954 (Muzafer Sherif et al, 1961).… Read More

Bibliography T

A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J    K    L    M    N    O    P-Q    R    S     T     U    V    W    X-Y-Z Taitimu, Melissa, John Read & Tracey McIntosh (2018): ‘Ngā Whakāwhitinga (standing at the crossroads): how Māori understand what Western Psychiatry calls “schizophrenia” in Transcultural Psychiatry 55/2 Tajfel, Henri (1970): ‘Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination’ in Scientific American #223 Tajfel, Henri (1982): ‘Social Psychology of Inter-Group Relations’ in Annual Review of Psychology #33 Tajfel, Henri & John Turner (1979): ‘An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict’ in William G Austin & Stephen Worchel: ‘The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations’ (Brooks-Cole, Monterey CA) Takahashi, Keiko (1990): ‘Are the Key Assumptions of the ‘Strange Situation’ Procedure universal? A View from Japanese Research’ in Human Development 33/1 Takano, Yohtaro & Eiko Osaka (1999): ‘An Unsupported Common View: comparing Japan and the US on Individualism/Collectivism’ in Asian Journal of Social Psychology 2/3 Lisa Tamres, Denise Janicki & Vicki Helgeson (2002): ‘Sex Differences in Coping Behavior: a Meta-Analytic Review and an Examination of Relative Coping’ in Personality & Social Psychology Review 6/1 Taormina, Robert & Jennifer Gao (2013): ‘Maslow and the Motivation Hierarchy: Measuring Satisfaction of the Needs’ in American Journal of Psychology 126/2 Tapsfield, James… Read More

Bibliography P-Q

A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J    K    L    M    N    O    P-Q    R    S     T     U    V    W    X-Y-Z Pakko, Michael & Susan Pollard (2003): ‘Burgernomics: A Big Mac™ Guide to Purchasing Power Parity’ (Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis Review) https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/ (Accessed: 01/12/11) Palmer, Bill  (2017): ‘Confirmed: Russia put up Millions of Dollars to fund French Presidential Candidate Marine Le Pen’ (Palmer Report) http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/russia-marine-le-pen-french-president/2425/ (Accessed: 14/06/17) Palmer, Emma & Clive Hollin (1998): ‘A Comparison of Patterns of Moral Development in Young Offenders and Non-Offenders’ in Journal Of Legal & Criminological Psychology #3 Palmer, Stephen & Ray Wolfe (1999): ‘Integrative and Eclectic Counselling and Psychotherapy’ (Sage Publications) Pannell, Ian & Darren Conway (2013): ‘Syria Crisis: Incendiary Bomb Victims “like the walking dead” (BBC News) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-23892594 (Accessed: 29/08/13) Papez, James (1937): ‘A Proposed Mechanism of Emotion’ in Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry #38 Paquette, Daniel (2004): ‘Theorizing the Father-Child Relationship: Mechanisms and Developmental Outcomes’ in Journal of Human Development #47 Parke, Ross (1981): ‘Fathers’ (Harvard University Press) Parker, Howard (1974): ‘View from the Boys’ (Ashgate, Aldershot UK) Parker, Kandis Cooke & Donald Forrest (1993): ‘Attachment  Disorder: an Emerging Concern for Shool Counsellors’ in Elementary School Guidance &… Read More

David Cameron’s right about Multiculturalism BUT…

This past weekend David Cameron pushed forward considerably ideas his predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had been moving progressively towards …. In essence, this is to say pretty explicitly that, if you want to be British, you need to buy into the British identity and British values. (Ironically, freed from the collective responsibility of Cabinet, Blair on these issues is almost certainly well to the right of Cameron these days – see: ‘Radical Islam’ and the Return of Tony Blair). Cameron criticised ‘state multiculturalism’ and argued the UK needs a stronger national identity to stop people turning to extremism. With MI6 warning last week that Britain faces an “‘unstoppable wave of home-grown suicide bombers”, Cameron could hardly have ignored the threat from radicalised young Muslims; and it seems logical to ascribe their lack of identification with ‘British values’ as one cause of their radicalisation. In his speech on Saturday (5 February) Cameron accused multiculturalism of leading to a Britain of ‘divided tribes’. The prime minister posited that the multiculturalist dogma, which increasingly dominated political and social thinking from the early 1970s on, had meant the majority had to accord each minority ethnic group respect and the freedom to pursue its… Read More

Should the BNP appear on the Beeb?

There are few things guaranteed to get the knickers of the British ‘chattering classes’ in a twist more than the British National Party (BNP). It’s bad enough that they exist at all – that they are gaining significantly in electoral support in 21st Century Britain is simply unbelievable! And now the BBC are considering having them on ‘Question Time’…how utterly disgraceful!! People who vote BNP are clearly small-minded, uneducated, unthinking and immoral racists. It’s a harmonic of the BLUE and GREEN vMEMES which condemns the BNP and which condemns those who vote for them. It’s a variant harmonic of these vMEMES which has led the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to take the BNP to court on the charge that the latter’s constitution is discriminatory as it does not allow membership to those of a non-white ethnicity. And it’s another variant harmonic of these vMEMES which has drawn up the forthcoming Equality Bill (2009). The problem with these approaches is that, rather than understand what it is about the BNP that gains support from substantial numbers of people, they attempt to suppress the BNP. However, Nick Griffin and the top echelon of the BNP are smart characters. They have got… Read More