Explain How Groups Can Influence People in Positive and Negative Ways Essay

Being situation of a host can give an individual a sense of security, a progress to their ego-esteem and a feeling of belonging. They may see themselves as organism part of an in-group. Being part of a group that is seen as creationness better than other(a)s (an in-group), can create a bond among the members. heap of different races or religions, or rival gangs, would be seen as being the out-group. The sense of security and bonding with the other members can come from having populate around you that are working with you, and spoting that you cede somebody looking at out for you if and when things go wrong. Having people depending on you in a leading role can give set ahead an individuals self esteem. There are many negatives that can come with being part of a group also. Peer pressure and the feeling of having to adapt in ways in which may expect inappropriate, could cause members to go along with decisions and behaviour make, so that they fit in even though they k now the outcomes wont possibly be the best adepts. The pressure to conform in front of other members of a group was apparent in an experiment carried out by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. It showed how members of a group exit go along with decisions that others make even though they know that its not necessarily the correct choice. A sm each group were shown a picture of a line and then asked out of three other lines, which champion was the same length. Several members of the group deliberately gave the wrong answer. They had been influenced by the experimenters. The results showed that the take of conformity grew when the answers were said out loud. The level of conformity decreased when the participants were asked to write down their answers in private. The members (not in on the experiment) clearly matte that they needed to conform with the rest of the group, whether it was because they didnt want to seem chimerical or they just tangle pressured into agreeing and not being th e odd one out.During the 1950s and 1960s an experiment carried out by Muzafer Sherif et al (1961) took a group of boys from a summer camp and divided them into two groups. The boys interacted considerably at first, working together and behaving inways that would be expected, until they facility up a tournament type competition. The behaviour between the groups truly quickly sullen negative with name calling, hostility and aggression. Within the groups though, the level of solidarity was extremely high between the boys. Once the experimenters intervened and introduced activities that encouraged the groups to work together again, the boys were able to cooperate well and any bad feelings were forgotten. This experiment shows how companion pressure clearly had quite an influence on the boys behaviour as the aggression felt towards the other group clearly wasnt in the flesh(predicate) as the negative behaviour was quickly forgotten once the experimenters took control. It seems mo re than so that one member, possibly the boy seen as the leader, made a move, quickly the rest of the groups behaviour changed one by one escalating to such hostilities. The members of the individual groups would have felt as though they were the in-groups and probably felt a sense of security in that they had others working with them and the self esteem of the leader would have risen significantly.another(prenominal) example of how being part of a group can have its negatives and positives is the story of Dorinne Kondo (1990). She was a Japanese American woman who, having lived all her life in America, goes to Japan to study. There, she stays with a Japanese family, the Sakamotos. Kondo finds it touchy to conform from the start of her visit and she feels she is being judged for looking Japanese alone not acting in the correct manner or being able to properly communicate as she didnt speak the language. subsequently spending time and helping out with the family she is staying wit h, Kondo gradually learns the way to do things to accommodate the Japanese culture. After she gets praise from Mr Sakamoto himself for greeting him with a postpone in the traditional manner and when her teacher praises her flawless performance at the tea ceremony, Kondo will no doubt have had a boost to her self esteem and possibly a bonding with the Japanese women. The negatives seem to out-weigh the positives during Kondos time in Japan though as she struggled with the fact that women are seen as being below the males and having to bow down (literally) to them. She felt obliged to take on the daughter role during her stay and a feeling of peer pressure to perform as a Japanese woman, even though it wasnt necessarily the way she would act in her life in America.In conclusion being in a social group (the boys from the Robbers Cave experiment) there seemed to be more positives as the boys felt they had others on their side and lots of back up when things turned bad. Their self est eem would have been pretty high and the bond between them all would of grown as the time went on. Kondos story, which showed more of a cultural group, had more negatives as she really felt the pressure to conform to suit her cultural group and setting.