How groups can influence people Essay

In this essay, I am going to describe how pigeonholings fag capture spate in a positive and in a minus courses. I will be utilise evidence drawn from Chapter 5 of the direct text Starting with psychology Spoors et al (2011). It is in a human char stageer to be a break up of a br separately pigeonholing. Belonging to a classify, such as family, clubs, sport teams or group of friends, knuckle under us deem, it make us detect good about ourselves, give us a sense of brotherly identity. It brings meaning to our life, it make us feel ilk we become. However, being a dampen of a group washbasin also have a negative effect. sort pressure goat ca occasion us to transport in a way that we will non normally do. To support my argument I will use as an example evidence from Kondos score and as well Zimbardo and Asch experimentations (Spoors et al 2011). In our aliveness, we belong to many several(predicate) kindly groups. Our social identity is establish on the grou p we belong to, we lift the status of our group in coiffure to increase our self-image.We watershed the world into people care us, who belong to our group, called the in-group, and those matchless who are different them, the out-group (Spoors et al 2011). ii psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner developed that possibility. The theory argues that there are iii genial 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 trice process is a social identification. When we come 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 analyse our group with other groups. To maintain our self-conceit we will compare our group favourably with other groups. An experiment carried out by Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues (1971) Spoors et al (2011) provides evidence how people deportment can change when they become a touch off of a group.They choose haphazard a group of male participants and divide them into guards and prison houseers and then(prenominal) located them in a simulated prison. After six days, the experiment had to be stopped, as the guards became brutal and disgraceful towards prisoners, and the prisoners begun suffering from emotional disturbance. This experiment shows how the forward perceptions that the participants have of the role of a prison guards and prisoners, that probably came from watching films and television programs, influenced them to behave in a negative way. a nonher(prenominal) example of how groups can influence our conduct is experiment carried out by Solomon Asch (Spoors et al 2011). He asked fifty participants to look at the picture of a straight fold, and then showed them another picture with a three more than lines of different lengths. Then he asked the participants to identify out loud the line that is the aforementioned(prenominal) length as the accepted one.Surprisingly 75 per cent of the group give a wrong repartee, which was a result of a group pressure. plurality have the need for compliance that is why they go along with the norms of the groups. They want to be accepted as an in-group person. Conforming to group norms is sending a message to the other members of the group that I am not a thread, I am same like you, and I am chase our rules. Asches experiment showed that the need for adjustity pressured participants to give a wrong answer to a question they just evidently followed the rest of the group. An example of how group can influence us on a positive way is Kondos story in Spoors et al (2011). Dorinne Kondo is a Nipponese American, raised in the USA. She went to Japan to do an anthropological enquiry. She stay ons there for 26 months, a fewer months she stays with a Nipponese family to ensure how proper Nipponese women s upposed to behave and present herself. At the same time, she was acting as a scientific observer.That is a method of research called participant-observation, where the researcher is both an observer and a participant (Spoors et al 2011). The first few months in Japan were very disagreeable for Knodo she did not understand the etiquette and traditions that are part of their everyday life. Every time she make a mistake, people trait her like she was retarded or insane. They were confused, as she looked like a Japanese women but she did not act in a Japanese manner. During her visit in Japan, her guarantor introduced her to Mrs Sakamoto who invited her to stay with her family for summer. It was a great opportunity for Kondo to learn about the traditions. During her visit she was trying to conform to their way of life, she wanted to feel their acceptance, so she start learning about her Japanese roots and proper etiquette, she took a part in a tea service class.At the end of her visit in Japan, she was pleased with herself and all she have learn during her visit. She did not struggle any more to fit in both cultures, the approval of Sakamotos family had a good influence on her, it makes her feel like she belong to their world. Kondos story demonstrates that in our lifetime we have multiple social identities, which happen to evolve as we grow old(a) or when we move into new situations Spoors et al (2011).In those few examples, I was exploring how groups can influence people in a positive and negative ways. Positively, by providing us a sense of belonging to the social world and bringing meaning to our life, as shown on an example of Kondos story, and negatively by pressuring us to conform and act out of character, what confirm an Zimbardos and Asches experiments.