AQA A-Level Psychology - SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND SOCIAL CHANGE [Social Influence Topic]

This fully editable lesson is designed for the AQA A-Level Specification (June 2019), focusing on Social Change within the context of Social Influence. The lesson explores how processes like minority influence, conformity, and obedience contribute to societal shifts in beliefs and behaviors. Using real-world examples and research-based activities, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of how social influence can drive change.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive Lesson Slides: The slides cover the six key processes involved in social change, including drawing attention, consistency, deeper processing, the augmentation principle, the snowball effect, and social cryptomnesia. Real-world examples such as the Civil Rights Movement and LGBTQ+ activism are used to illustrate each process.

• Interactive Activities: Includes a “Do Now” task to engage students, as well as a summary activity where students outline the six steps of social change and apply them to historical or modern social movements. The task also encourages students to apply lessons from obedience and conformity research, such as normative and informational social influence, to real-life examples like tackling the obesity crisis.

• Research-Based Insights: The lesson draws on key studies from social influence research, such as Milgram’s obedience study and Moscovici’s blue-green slide experiment, to show how these concepts relate to social change. Students are encouraged to critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of these studies.

• Assessment Materials: Features exam practice questions, including short-answer questions on social change and how social influence processes contribute to it. Students are also asked to apply their knowledge of these processes to real-world scenarios like government campaigns on health issues, such as obesity.

• Critical Evaluation: Students critically evaluate the role of minority influence, conformity, and obedience in social change, exploring factors like normative social influence and disobedient role models. They also examine research evidence, including Nolan et al.’s study on energy consumption, which highlights how social norms can lead to behavior change.

This lesson resource is ideal for classroom instruction and independent study, providing a detailed look at the processes that drive societal shifts and how social influence theories can be applied to modern-day social movements.