Social Influences in the Change of Opinion Research Paper (Essay Sample)

SOCIAL INFLUENCES OF CHANGE
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Introduction
The social setting within which individuals live or interact is a major determinant of change and adoption of behavior among other things. Social influences are the major determinants of individual behavior and the decisions that different personalities will make with regards to different areas of their livesCITATION Sol14 \p 43 \l 1033 (Solomon, 2014, p. 43). As such, people make decisions either to fit within a given social group, or due to the benefits that such decisions will yield for them and their beloved ones. To determine such benefits, individuals refer to other persons within their social environment. As such, social psychology provides a lens through which the influences of individual behavior can be determined and how such is important in the adoption of new approaches to business such as the digitization of business. This paper seeks to review the various social influences that are likely to determine the changes that an individual ought to make in order to flourish within the contemporary digital economy.
Social Roles
The presence of other persons within an individual’s social context may prove to be highly important in influencing their behavior in different ways. Nevertheless, social roles tend to be the most important influence of individual behavior as it involves the expectations that other persons set up of others. Individual do not expect other persons’ behavior to be random, but to be particular to a certain way as defined by their situationCITATION Han14 \p 228 \l 1033 (Kaufmann, 2014, p. 228). As such, every social situation has been accorded a given set of expectations concerning how best it is to behave. These expectations vary from one group to the other. These expectations are apparent in the roles played by different individuals within the society. As such, social roles refer to the part played by individuals within their social group. The adoption of each social role leads to changes in behavior and decision making approaches that are particular to such a role.
The social roles adopted by individuals within their social environment are defined by the available social normsCITATION Ros11 \p 78 \l 1033 (Reiter, 2011, p. 78). The latter are a set of rules that define the course of action that ought to be take in every given situation by those bearing certain roles. This is an important consideration when it comes to making of decisions in the business environment. With the social roles being a major determinant of social behavior and social behavior being a major determinant of economic behavior, social roles are an important consideration of economic behavior. Individual tend to uphold behavior that fulfills certain norms within, an aspect referred to as conformity CITATION Pau12 \l 1033 (Adams, 2012). In the current digital environment, individuals are bound to pick on changes that allow for their conformity with the social norms that define their social roles.
Nurture
Another important determinant of individual behavior is the aspect of being nurtured. The process of nurturing involves the kind of exposure that individuals have and what they consider as being important to themCITATION Ant15 \p 60 \l 1033 (Biglan, 2015, p. 60). Under nurturing, the two most important determinants of decision making, which could be important in deciding the kind of changes to implement in the current digital economy, include humanism and behaviorism. Under humanism, Maslow established basic physical needs that individuals aim at attaining or achieving. As such, persons are more receptive to ideas that fulfill their needs and reject those that do not. This is a highly important point when it comes to making decisions on the kind of changes to adopt from the established market system. Consumers are likely to engage in transactions that will uphold their needs as defined by Maslow, and such needs may vary with the context in which they operate from and the level of fulfillment of their previous needsCITATION Fro14 \p 135 \l 1033 (Pirson, et al., 2014, p. 135). In addition, the social context of an individual influences their self-concept, an aspect that allows individuals to develop a certain understanding of themselves and their needs. As such they make decision based on such needs, established based on the constructs of the society in which they live.
On the other hand, behaviorism dictates that individuals learn all behavior from their environment via conditioningCITATION Spe121 \p 437 \l 1033 (Rathus, 2012, p. 437). Contrary to internal events including emotion and thinking, behaviorism is mainly concerned with behavior that is observable. As such, individuals tend to respond to certain stimulus within their immediate environment through their decision making. In this perspective, when making decisions on changes that ought to be upheld in order to succeed in the global digital economy, it is important to understand the various environmental factors that influence the behavior of individuals, including technological factors.
Conformity
Conformity is another major social influence that is important in determining the various changes that ought to be adopted within the global digital economy in order to experience success. This involves changing the behavior or belief of an individual in order to fit within a certain group. In this case, individuals make change in response to imagined or real group pressureCITATION Soc12 \p 88 \l 1033 (Smith & Haslam, 2012, p. 88). Group pressures are likely to occur in different forms such as persuasion, bullying, criticism, and teasing, among others. As such conformity refers to being in agreement with a majority position that results from the desire to be liked or fit in, or due to the desire to be considered correct. This is a major issue of concern in the business environment, especially for marketers as it defines the causative factors for consumer behavior. Consumer behavior is highly influenced by the environment from which they operate and the group in which they can be categorized CITATION Efr16 \l 1033 (Turban, et al., 2016). As such, market segmentation is important not only in determining the particular needs of each group, but also the various patterns of group pressure among them.
In most cases, individuals embrace certain forms of change to be accepted within a certain group and to fulfill the need for a belongingness. Considering the adoption of changes within the digital economy that are likely to lead to success, of the major influences of such change is compliance, where one is likely to adopt changes suggested by the group, if they believe that such changes will be of benefit to themCITATION Den13 \p 561 \l 1033 (Coon & Mitterer, 2013, p. 561). Another factor that is likely to influence adoption of change is internalization, which refers to the acceptance of group influence with increased consideration of the intrinsic reward that one ought to achieve.
Nomothetic
The personality of individuals is highly important in determining their behavior and decision-making approaches. As exploited by different market researchers, it is evident that there are certain traits that are particular to certain people, which categorize them under certain sets of consumers, allowing businesses to develop a better understanding of them and business strategies that are specific to their behavior. Five of the most common traits of importance include agreeableness, emotional stability extroversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousnessCITATION Gor14 \p 668 \l 1033 (Redding, 2014, p. 668). The traits of an individual are ...