7.9 Media & Anti-Conformity very cool very

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1. Factors that Influence
Behaviour:
Media &
Anti-Conformity
Unit 2 Psychology
Area of Study 1: How are people influenced to behave in particular ways?
Grivas textbook Ch.7, pages 494-512.

Note: some content has been taken from Cambridge & Nelson Psychology textbooks

2. Learning Intentions
(key knowledge from the VCE Psychology Study Design 2023-2027)
We will understand
•the influence of social groups and culture on individual behaviour.
•the concepts of obedience and conformity and their relative influence on
individual behaviour.
•positive and negative influences of different media sources on individual
and group behaviour, such as changing nature of social connections, social
comparison, addictive behaviours and information access.
•the development of independence and anti-conformity to empower
individual decision-making when in groups.

3. Positive & Negative Influences of Media
Type Positives Negatives
Television TV can be educational, informative and inspirational. It
can expose us to new ideas and encourage us to try
new things.
Exposure to violent television has been shown to
increase aggressive behaviour in children, and also
increase their levels of fear and distress.
Video GamesVideo games can be fun, immersive (escapism),
relaxing, educational and challenging. They can help to
relieve boredom and can also keep the mind active.
They may also be used for training and education
purposes.
Exposure to violent games has been shown to increase
aggressive behaviour – even more than tv, because
games are interactive and therefore actively encourage
the behaviour. Game playing can become addictive.
Social MediaSocial media can foster and support social networking
and communication. It helps people stay connected,
enables them to find like-minded communities, and
can also act as an educational platform. Social
comparison can be inspirational and/or validating.
News and information can be widely shared almost
instantly and can be an agent for change.
More time spent checking social media correlates with
lower grades at school and uni. Social comparison can
trigger FOMO and can be harmful if comparing
ourselves to unrealistic standards. Exposure to
inappropriate content or nasty comments can damage
mental health. Misinformation is easily spread and
there may be cyber safety issues. Can become
addictive.
Advertising Ads can be informative or helpful, e.g. COVID vaccine
ads, bushfire safety ads. They can encourage
consumers to think proactively about their health and
can also promote healthy or useful products that will
enrich individuals’ lives.
Unrealistic representations of products and/or people
can cause confusion, disappointment and feelings of
inadequacy. Children are heavily targeted but are
unable to distinguish fact from fiction. Increasingly
difficult to regulate, especially online.

4. Symptoms of Media Addiction

5. ACTIVITY: Facts and Figures!
•Read pages 495-510 of the Jacaranda textbook.
•For each type of media, note two interesting facts and/or figures
about that media’s influence on society.
•As a class, collate your findings on the whiteboard.
Source: Enterprise Apps Today, 2023.

ROI = Return on Investment

7. Independence and Anti-Conformity
Non-Conformity: refers to any behaviour that is not conformity.

•Independence: occurs when we perceive group pressure but do
not respond to it (freedom from influence or control of others).
•May sometimes make us feel uncomfortable to be different, but overall
people feel better when they see themselves as unique.

•Anti-Conformity: occurs when we deliberately refuse to comply
with expected behaviour (deliberately acting against others).
•Sometimes individuals will become more extreme in their resistant
position if they are met with disagreement (pressure to conform
threatens our independence so we rebel).

8. Factors That Influence Non-Conformity
•Minority vs Majority:
•Single non-conformists within a majority group will generally be treated with
ridicule and disdain or will be ignored by the majority.
•Minority groups that disagree with the majority are viewed as an
independent group with their own valid opinion, so tend to be taken more
seriously.

•Personality Factors: non-conformers generally tend to be more
intelligent, less anxious, have more realistic self-perception, are more
original and are more self-contained/autonomous. Conformers tend
to be less intelligent, more anxious, lack self-confidence and insight,
have poor judgement of others and are more conventional and
moralistic.

•Culture: non-conformity tends to occur more readily in individualist
cultures than in collectivist cultures.

9. Explanations for Non-Conformity
•Psychological Reactance Theory (Jack Brehm, 1966): states that when
people experience a threat to or loss of freedom (e.g. they are pressured to
conform) they will experience distress, anxiety, resistance and will act in a
manner that reduces the threat (by rebelling).
•In 1994 a man in Little Rock, Arakansas was issued a court injunction ordering him
to remove some of his Christmas lights (he had over 3 million) because his
neighbours were finding the display disruptive. He added more lights!
•Think: how often have you refused to do something just because someone else told
you to and you didn’t like being bossed around?

•Need for Uniqueness: if individuals feel indistinguishable from others they
may compensate for that negative feeling by more actively asserting their
difference through non-conformity.
•E.g. rejecting a popular brand just because everybody else likes it so much.

•Social Impact Theory (Latané & Wolf, 1981): degree of influence that a
person experiences in a group depends on the group’s strength, immediacy
and size. See next slide for details.

11. What Do We Know?
•Media (TV, games, social media and ads) can have both
positive and negative influences on an individual.
•Non-conformity is any behaviour that doesn’t conform, such
as independence or anti-conformity.
•Non-conformity may be influenced by personality, culture or
the individual’s standing against the majority (if they are
alone or part of a minority group).
•Non-conformity may be explained by Psychological
Reactance Theory, the need for uniqueness and Social
Impact Theory.

12. Consolidate Your Understanding
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