The real life example of conformity to minority influence happened in the early 20th century with the Suffragette movement, where a group of women fighting for the right of women voting in the election.
Minority influence in residential care settings could be a new staff member who has just started working in the care home and have different views than the majority of the staff members who have worked for a long period of time.
The new staff member knows the latest new legislation on health and safety at work act and equality, diversity and rights. For example, manual handling operation has new regulations and the minority person knows about it. So the person should provide new ideas and information on the correct procedures to follow when manual handling the elderly people.
The staff member should be consistent with her ideas and must be confident with her ideas.
She must also have to be unbiased towards the majority of the staff members.
In addition, she must also resist the social pressures of the majority by sticking to her views even if she feels bad. The majority’s style of thinking should be deep to make the majority think about what the minority is talking about, and this can be done in a team meeting.
Compromise is also important in order to influence the views of the majority. By listening to the views of others and not dismissing and pushing your ideas first. Identification is also important because if the minority of the staff members does not have similarities with the majority such as: age, gender and culture then it will not work. It may work, but it will not be quick.
Conformity to social roles
Conformity to social roles is about people behaving certain ways depending on what social roles they are playing. People are usually aware of what sort of behaviours, attitudes and emotions they are expected in different social roles. Some people may behave differently when they are at work and at home. (M, 2010, p. 324)
Philip Zimbardo did an experiment in 1973 to see how much the roles can influence behaviour within the prisons. In order to carry out his experiment he has interviewed groups of male students and chose the ones that had good physical and psychological health. He chose to do his experiment in a basement of the Stanford University, which he transformed into a mock prison.
The students who took part in the experiment were randomly given the role of either a prisoner or a guard. The guards were given uniforms and dark sunglasses and the prisoners were given identical ‘convict’ clothes and they were only identified and addressed by their numbers rather than their names. This was done in order to encourage them to take on their roles that they were given.
As soon as the experiment began the guards started to treat the prisoners in a brutal way and punishing the prisoners when they didn’t obey the orders that were given.
The prisoners were distressed and started to act submissive towards the guards. Zimbardo had to stop his experiment after 3 days because the prisoners were showing signs of psychological harm.
From this experiment it has shown how powerful social roles can be and how it can influence on our behaviour.
(M, 2010, pp. 324-325)
In a residential home, the staff members have a power over the residents, especially when the staff members wear their uniform. If there is no supervision in the residential care home, then it is very likely that an abuse towards the residents could take place.
The residents and the staff members are not equal as the staff members have more power over them. Uniform makes the difference that makes them take the roles. For example, there is a white coat syndrome, this is when a doctor is wearing their white coat it intimidates the patients.
Obedience
Obedience is about taking orders and obeying the person who has higher authority over them. For example, students have to obey the order of the teachers because they are higher authority than them.
Hofling Hospital Experiment
Hofling was a psychologist who has done an experiment on a hospital setting in 1966. He did a more realistic experiment on obedience than Milgram that was related to health and social care.
Hofling used 22 real nurses who were working on a night shift in the hospital and they were unaware that they were being involved in an experiment. There was one confederate who pretended to be a doctor called Dr Smith.
Dr Smith phoned the night nurses separately and gave instruction to check if a drug called astroten was in and to administer 20 mg of dosage to a patient called Mr Jones. However, on the box of the drug the maximum dosage was stated at 10 mg.
Dr Smith said that he was in a desperate hurry and told the nurses that he will sign the authorisation form later when he sees the Mr Jones later on.
The night nurses were watched on to see what they would do in this situation, the drug was not real, but the nurses believed that it was a real drug.
If the nurses administer this drug to the patient, they would have broken 3 hospital rules.
- The nurses are not supposed to take instructions from someone over the phone.
- The dosage of the drug was double the maximum limit stated on the box.
- The drug is unauthorised as it is not in the ward stock list.
What Hofling found out from the experiment was shocking to him because, 21 out of 22 nigh nurses were easily influenced into carrying out the orders made by a doctor. They should have been aware of the fact that they were not supposed to take instructions over the phone and let alone exceed the allowed dosage.
From this experiment Hofling has demonstrated that people are very unwilling to question the people who have authority over them, even when they might have good reason to question them.
(McLeod, 2008)
This experiment can be applied to the residential care setting, for example, staff members who are working in the residential care home may also carry out orders given by someone who has higher authorities than they.
If their supervisors give them order to administer a medication to an elderly resident which are higher dosage than they are allowed to give, they are more likely to carry out the order without questioning them. Even if they know that it will break the rules and are against their better judgement because it is a form of obedience that they were socialised from a young age.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is basically means that when there is a huge difference in our own beliefs and thoughts, attitudes or behaviour we would start to feel uneasy about ourselves. This is when we start to experience dissonance when we start to realise that we have different ideas. Therefore, in order to stop ourselves from feeling uneasy we start to change our thoughts. (M, 2010, p. 326)
A psychologist called Leon Festinger developed a theory called the ‘cognitive dissonance’. According to this theory people have an inner drive to hold all their attitudes and beliefs in harmony and try to avoid dissonance which is disharmony. The attitudes of people may change in our attitudes when we start to have dissonance.
The experiment that Festinger did was that he asked the participants to do a series of tasks that were dull such as turning pegs in a peg board for an hour. He knew that the tasks were boring and were sure that the participants’ attitudes towards the tasks would be negative. The participants were either given $20 or $1 to tell a lie to the waiting participants that the tasks were really interesting and fun.
All of the participants agreed to tell the other participants in the waiting room to persuade them that the experiment would be fun to do.
Festinger wanted to find out from the experiment whether making participants to do dull task would create cognitive dissonance by using forced compliance behaviour.
From the result of the experiment Festinger found out the participants who were paid $1 to lie have told that the experiment were more fun and enjoyable than the participants who were paid $20 to lie.
This showed that the participants who were paid $1 had experienced cognitive dissonance and to overcome their dissonance they made themselves believe that the tasks were really interesting and enjoyable. Whereas participants who were paid $20 provide a reason to do the dull task and therefore they did not experience dissonance.
(McLeod, Cognitive Dissonance, 2008)
You might see cognitive dissonance occurring in the care setting, for example, in the residential care home, you might have witnessed your work colleague who is also your friend abusing an elderly resident.
You know that it is wrong to abuse an elderly resident, but you feel that you cannot report the abuse because of your friend.
You would start to have cognitive dissonance because it is your friend who is abusing the resident. You may start to doubt about what you have witnessed and try to justify the reason of the abuse by thinking that there must be more to the story or you might have misunderstood the situation that you have witnessed. That change of thought might help to ease the feeling uneasiness of the cognitive dissonance.
M3 – Discuss the contribution of two psychological perspectives to the promotion of good practice in residential care services
Conformity to majority influence
The positive and negative effects of this type of influence on care staff’s attitude change, for example, if the majority of the staff members at the residential care home is following the right manual handling procedures and the minority staff member is doing the wrong procedure. Then this can have a positive effect as the minority staff member will change their ways and follow the majority of the staff members.
However, if it is the other way around, then it can have negative effects on the residents of the residential home. This is because if the majority of the staff members are not following the correct procedures and doing it wrong when manual handling and the minority person knows the right procedures but cannot express their opinion to the majority of the staff members due to being afraid of being the only one who disagrees with their ways and conforming to the majority.
In the residential care home, the conformity to majority influence has positive and negative effects on the residents and the staff members.
For example, if the majority of the staff members had good working practice towards the residents it can influence the minority to conform to the good practice. This will lead to the residents of the care home being treated fairly and with respect.
However, if the majority of the staff members of the residential care home for example were not following the right manual handling procedures and were hurting the residents while taking care of them. This can have a negative effect on the residents as well as the minority staff members. As if the majority of the staff members are doing bad practice, the minority may conform into their ways of doing even if they think it is wrong.
This could be to avoid being the only one out and it also could be due to the fact if they have just started working in the residential care and majority of the staff members have worked in the residential care home for many years.
Through education and staff training, all the staff members would be aware of the latest regulations, legislation, and policies and procedures that they must comply with.
Staff members would then all is aware what could happen to them if they do not follow the correct procedures and if they end up seriously injuring residents then they could get sued and lose their job. So by informing them the consequences of their actions towards the residents they are more likely to conform to the majority influence of doing it correctly and protecting themselves from being into trouble.
Promotion of good practice in the residential care home could be done through encouraging the majority and minority staff members to have same staff training and enforcing the correct policies and procedures when taking care of the elderly residents of the care home.
By providing staff training for all the staff members of the residential care home would mean that nobody is left out and they are all aware of what they are supposed to do to, ensure that they are all promoting good working practice at the residential care home.
Obedience
This experiment can be applied to the residential care setting, for example, staff members who are working in the residential care home may also carry out orders given by someone who has higher authorities than they.
If their supervisors give them order to administer a medication to an elderly resident which are higher dosage than they are allowed to give, they are more likely to carry out the order without questioning them. Even if they know that it will break the rules and are against their better judgement because it is a form of obedience that they were socialised from a young age.
In the residential care home the staff members have to act obedient towards their supervisors and managers of the residential care home. This is because they take orders from them and have to carry out their orders because the supervisors and managers have higher positions than them therefore has authority.
There are good and bad practices than can happen inside the residential care home and it can solely depend on each individuals who are working in the residential care home. If the supervisors or the managers of the care home are promoting good working practices to their staff members they are more likely to carry out high quality of care towards their residents by treating them with respect and meeting their individual needs.
However, if it’s the other way around it can affect the residents of the residential home in a negative way, such as abuse and neglecting of duty not being reported and stopped and sorted out.
In order to promote good practice in the residential care home it is important that the staff members are promoting independence and empowering the residents. If the supervisors and managers of the residential care home provides staff training on equality, diversity and rights. It will help to enable the staff members to know ways to promote good practice by respecting individual rights and giving the choices to the residents. This will help the residents to feel empowered and it can have positive affect on them as they health and wellbeing would be good.
Care value base is important to be promoted in order to have good working practice in the residential care home. As it is important that the supervisors and managers are proving the care vale base guidelines for the staff members so that they would obey the
Newly qualified and new staff members who joined the residential care home may fall into the obedience role more than the other staff members who worked in the care home longer than them. This could be due to young staff with lack of experience as well as low self-esteem and they may not question their supervisor’s orders even if they think that it is wrong thing to do.
Bibliography
Boundless. (ND, ND ND). The Power of Peer Pressure: The Asch Experiment. Retrieved April 16, 2015, from Boundless: https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/social-groups-and-organization-6/group-dynamics-57/the-power-of-peer-pressure-the-asch-experiment-356-3293/
M, S. B. (2010). BTEC Level 3 Nationals in Health and Social Care Student Book 2. Essex: Pearson.
McLeod, S. (2007, ND ND). Moscovici et al. (1969) Blue-Green Study. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from SimplyPsychology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/minority-influence.html
McLeod, S. (2008, ND ND). Cognitive Dissonance. Retrieved April 29, 2015, from SimplyPsychology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html
McLeod, S. (2008, ND ND). Hofling Hospital Experiment. Retrieved April 16, 2015, from SimplyPsychology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/hofling-obedience.html
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