How Groups Can Influence People in Positive and Negative Ways Essay

Groups make for people in unequivocal and negative ways. Looking at query and studies we bequeath mold how the roles we play in sort issues butt end curve our demeanour. We will get a line how companys we gravitate to help raise our self-esteem and give us a sensory faculty of perishing that at the akin cartridge clip how counterpoint is created with other convocations. Groups we belong to help to give us a find of identity entirely we will inspect how we behind lose this as we conform to ag gathering behavior and the collision this can agree. Finally, we will look at Kondos research and how changing cultures easy changed her identity and how this affected her on her journeying emphasising her unequivocal and negative influences.As we cause we will bring many well-disposed identities which influence the hosts we belong to. These concourses can function from friends to family and further appear to congregations like nationality and ethnicity. ins ide these groups we have divers(prenominal) roles to play which influence our behaviour.A contr everyplacesial experiment by Zimbardo (1971) (Spoors et al.) shows how a groups of males were separated into twain groups of guards and prisoners in a make shift prison. aft(prenominal) six days of a two week experiment it was stopped. The guards became opprobrious small-arm the prisoners showed signs of emotional disturbance.Lots of factors could have influenced the role players behaviour but this experiment shows us the effect that roles have on us in a group and how expeditious we ar to adapt to them. We compute how an individual can turn abusive and in like manner how individuals can be walked over an abused.Regarding Zimbardos experiment we can give away two groups. Psychologists call these our in and appear groups. Evidence suggests our in group raises our self-esteem, we tuck a sense of belong, identification and a sense of status. Our in group also gives us an opportu nity to comp ar with our out group this can create run afoul as an us and them divide is formed.positively we show favour to our in group and negatively we discriminate against our out group. Tajfel et al. (1971) (Spoors et al.) showed this when he assigned teenage boys to a virtual group that did not exist. The boys hush up showed favouritism to their in group.We see this behaviour in an experiment conducted by Sherif et al. (1961) (Spoors et al.). He set two sets of boys in a summer camp into groups. singly the groups interacted, group norms were followed, they joked and had secret codes. The groups were set against apiece other in competition and within their feature groups co-operation and allegiance were heightened but hostility, aggressiveness and prejudiced was seen between the groups.Observing Sherifs get hold of we see positively how group members found a sense of belong in their deliver group and how loyalty and co-operation were heightened by competition. negativ ely we see their behaviour changing when clashing against their out group becoming hostile, aggressive and prejudiced. Prejudism against our out group bolsters self-esteem as it allows us to see other groups as inferior.We feel risk-free and reference of our in group but through group pressure we whitethorn conform to the await of the group and the sense of identity we gained we could start to lose as we become more influenced by the rest of the group. Asch (1951) (Spoors et al.) looked at this and conducted an experiment on conformity. Participants had to adjoin two lines out of a group of four that were similar in duration with a group of other people. Participants conformed with the group who deliberately gave amiss(p) answers. This was repeated and lxx five per cent of participants gave a wrong answer at least once.Aschs experiment shows the influence of group pressure. Negatively this influence can have contraband implications. Spoors et al. (2011) use the example of the Heavens admission cult. Thirty nine of their members committed felo-de-se believing their souls would be transported to a spaceship behind Hale Bop comet. psychological factors need to be recognised but would they have acted this way left(a) to their own devices? Positively Aschs experiment shows us how we like to feel part of a group and not left out. fraternity would be chaos if people did not conform to some degree. Just departure to the cinema and being quiet we are conforming to the silence so others are not offended.Cultures will have an influence on conformity as collectivistic cultures emphasise groups more than Individualist cultures so all depending where we live in the military personnel cultures influence our behaviour in groups. As our behaviour changes so will our own social identities and this can finally winding us onto research by Dorinne Kondo (1990) (Spoors et al.)Dorinne Kondo was a Japanese American raised in the U.S.A. She moved to Japan to take part i n research involving participant-observational study pathetic in with a Japanese family. everywhere time she found her American identity diminishing and her new identity expand encountering both positive and negative influences on her journey.Negatively she describes being confronted with bewilderment, embarrassment charge anger on her linguistical mistakes and when conforming wrongly to Japanese customs also when appropriate behaviour meant she had to behave subserviently. She describes her conflicts surrounding expectations of sex activity especially her role as a young woman. Positively she describes being left with a warm positive emotional state to her live in family when being substantiate for behaving with proper Japanese etiquette. After time she found herself losing her American identity. In her tea ceremony class she explains her awkward, exaggerated western movements had been replaced with Japanese grace. Kondos research demonstrates the positive and negative i nfluences we encounter in different cultures and how they can change us as a person as our identities evolve.We have seen how groups can influence people in both positive and negative ways. Zimbardos prison experiment shows us how quick we take up roles in a group and the extent to which we act out these roles. Sherifs summer camp study shows how we look for a sense of belonging and to raise our self-esteem in a group but how we discriminate when conflict is created. These same groups who we look to for affirmation can influence us so greatly we will make the wrong decisions. We have also seen from research how different cultures can influence our positive and negative behaviour in groups and the impact this has on us as our identities evolve.