Microsoft Word Chapter 1 done doc

Minority Influence: Does the Majority Always Rule? 
We have often noted that minorities do influence majority on 
many occassions. It will be interesting to know the process, which 
make them successful. Research findings suggest that they are 
most likely to succeed under certain conditions, which are 
discussed below: 
First, the members of such minority groups must be 
consistent in their opposition to majority opinions. If they show sign 
of yielding to the majority view, their impact is reduced.
Second, the members of the minority must avoid appearing 
to be rigid and dogmatic. A minority that merely repeats the same 
position over and over again is less persuasive than one that 
demonstrates degree of flexibility. 

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Third, the general social context in which a minority operates 
is important. If a minority argues for a position that is consistent 
with current social trends (e.g., conservative views at a time of 
growing conservatism), its chances of influencing the majority are 
greater than if it argues for a position that is out of step with such 
trend.
Symbolic Social Influence: How we are Influenced by others 
even when they are not there : 
Other people can influence us when they are present and 
trying to do so is not that surprising but growing evidence suggest 
that others can influence us even when they are not present and 
not trying to change our behaviour or thoughts, a process that can 
be described as symbolic social influence.
Symbolic Social Influence can be defined as social influence 
resulting from the mental representations of others or of our 
relationships with them.
It will be interesting to know how the psychological presence 
of others in our mental representations of others or of relationship 
with them influence our behaviour and thought. Some of the 
explanations are given below: 
First, we have relational schemas i.e., mental 
representations of people with whom we have relationships, when 
these relational schemas are triggered, in turn, goals relevant to 
them may be activated. These goals, in turn, can affect our 
behaviour, our thoughts about ourselves, and our evaluations of 
others. e.g., if we think of our professor in university, the goal of 
respecting and following the instructions given by him/her is 
activated. Then we become more inclined toward giving respect to 
other faculty members in the department. 
Second, the psychological presence of others may trigger 
goals with which those persons are associated-goals they want us 
to achieve. For instance, if we have thoughts of our friend, we know 
that he wants to start a student’s movement in college, and our 
commitment to this goal may be increased and we may put efforts 
to attain it, especially if we feel very close to him.
Therefore, it is to the extent that others are psychologically 
present in out thoughts, the nature of our relationships with them, 
goals we keep in these relationships and goals these people 
themselves want us to achieve can all be stimulated or triggered, 
and these ideas strongly affect our decisions to behave in particular 
ways. 

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