UNIT 3.

POWER AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE

1. The social influence of power

2. Obedience
3. Conformity

Individual influence in others: Cognitive biases in our behaviour in the group:

•Mind percepcion:
We humans have a tendency to interpret others´ intentions in negative or positive way.

The study of mind perception help us understanding how we “read” other people´s
minds, what the mechanisms are, why we make mistakes on mind “reading”, and how
to improve our inferences about other persons´ thought, intentions, and emotions.

1. THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF POWER

• The group influence on individuals  Social influence:

Process whereby attitudes and behavior are influenced by the real or implied presence
of her people.
• Types of power-based social influence:
- Compliance to request: Superficial, public and transitory change in behavior
and expressed attitudes in response to requests, coercion or group pressure.
- Obedience to commands: More stable influence in behaviour responding to an
accepted authority.
- Conformity to group norms: A group influence in an individual who seeks to
belong or keep belonging to the group.

•Types of groups by the type of influence on individuals:

Groups influence individuals differentially whether they are belonging groups or
reference groups:

Reference group: Psychologically significant groups for people´s attitudes and

behavour, in the positive sense (we seek to be like them) or in the negative sense (we
seek to behave opposite to them). Reference groups give us a feedback on how we are
and how far we are from how we would like to be or not to be like.

Membership (or belonging) group: Group we consider as belonging to. Reference

group influence is more powerful than that of membership groups.
•Sources of power:
1. Reward power
2. Coercive power
3. Informational power
4. Expert power
5. Legitimate power
6. Referent power

•In the positive reference group we place our ideal self and role models. •In the
membership group we place or real self.

 Large distances and discrepancies between our real self (and our membership groups)
and our positive reference groups may explain depression.

 Considering social categories as groups we perceive belonging to a diversity of

groups that overlap among them, providing us with a rich identity which saliency
buffers self-esteem crises.