Can you relate to the following scenario? Marion has no interest in sports, but her brother really wants her to come with him to see his favorite team play football. Marion doesn't know anything about either team. However, when the opposing team's fans start insulting her brother's team, she suddenly finds herself angrily defending the team with her brother. Marion doesn't identify as a sports fan or an aggressive person. What made her react in such a way?
- What are social power structures?
- How do differences in power work in social groups?
- What are the characteristics of structures of power?
- How can we conceptualize structures of power?
- What are some examples of social power structures in psychology?
Social Power Structures: Theories of Class
All over the world, people have different amounts of power, money, and status. We see these differences in every culture, from very wealthy and powerful nations to those with far less. We can observe this dynamic at every level of a social structure as well. There are vast differences in status and power among the people of a single country! We even see class differences within individual cities and neighborhoods.
Class refers to the system within a society of ranking or categorizing people based on their wealth, race, popularity, or other characteristics.
Fig. 1, class refers to systems of ranking people based on wealth, race, popularity, and other characteristics, pixabay.com
Social comparison is natural in a society where people have markedly different class dynamics. People often look around and reflect on the differences in their lives because of their class. For a lot of us, social classes directly limit or benefit our lives. Those from higher social classes tend to think in ways that justify their privileged social status. This is called the just-world phenomenon.
The just-world phenomenon is the belief that life should always be fair and that people deserve what they get and get what they deserve.
Joe can't seem to understand why retail employees are striking for better wages. They could have gone to college as he did. They just don't want to work hard and make something of themselves. Why should those that are willing to work hard have to pay for other people's laziness?
On the surface, Joe's reasoning seems to make sense. However, Joe is not considering the significant advantages he has due to his social class. He came from a loving family that encouraged him to pursue his interests. His family took him to college interviews and reminded him about application deadlines. His parents could afford to pay for most of his tuition, so he left college without any student loans to pay back. He could afford to take an unpaid internship to gain experience and boost his resume. His internship led to a full-time job in his field.
Notice the different parts of Joe's social class: family dynamics, education, finances, and job opportunities. These are related to only one area of Joe's life: employment!
Social Power: In or Out Groups
Us and them. Good and bad. We find our identity through belonging to social groups.
Joe is a man, a brother, a Catholic, an NYU graduate, a Yankees fan, and an American. His social groups are defined by gender, family relations, religious affiliation, academic achievements, personal choices, and country of origin.
All of these groups make up his social identity. Our social identity, or our ingroups, shape our behavior and the way we think about outgroups.
- Ingroups: "us," our fellow group members, or the people we identify with. For Joe, other males, Catholics, and Yankees fans are examples of some ingroup members.
- Outgroups: "them," members of other groups, or the people who do not belong to our groups. For Joe, individuals who are female, Buddhist, and Red Sox fans are examples of some outgroup members.
Being part of a group has always been beneficial for our species. Ancient humans hunted in groups and lived together for protection and to share resources. Being part of a group has kept our species alive. However, being part of a group can create ingroup bias, leading to discrimination.
Ingroup Bias: mentally favoring one's own group or the people from those groups over the members of other groups.
Ingroup bias can seem simple, like jocks picking on the nerds. However, on a larger level, it can contribute to sexist, racist, or xenophobic ideas and policies. If we tend to favor and prioritize people with the same skin color, we might end up supporting prejudicial policies or racist actions. If we identify exclusively with other people from our own nation, we draw a distinct line between us and people from different national backgrounds.
Remember, biases are cognitive. Prejudice is an attitude, so it is cognitive and emotional. Discrimination is behavioral.
Fig. 2, social identity affects group dynamics, pixabay.com
Power Structures in Social Groups
Ingroup bias prioritizes self-interest and maximizes rewards for our own groups. Why would we want to help out or prioritize social groups that we don't belong to? Social psychologists explain this through the social exchange theory.
Social exchange theory proposes that our social behavior aims to minimize costs and maximize benefits for ourselves and our groups through an exchange process.
Layla is considering volunteering at an animal shelter. Unfortunately, it is a long commute to the shelter, and she doesn't have a car. To come on board as a volunteer, she has to commit 20 hours a week at the shelter, which is a lot for a high school student.
However, Layla is planning to go to veterinary school and her volunteer hours would look great on her resume. She might even get a scholarship! Besides, she loves animals and would enjoy every hour she spends at the shelter.
Even when we know it's the right thing to do, we still weigh the costs of the social exchange. The decisions that we make might cost us time, comfort, or money, but they might benefit us in numerous ways. We might get fulfillment, recognition, or opportunities out of helping others. We are constantly weighing the benefits and costs of everything we do.
Have you ever written a pro-con list before making a decision? People sometimes use these lists to help them weigh out the costs and benefits of a big or complicated decision. You can imagine a seesaw with all the benefits piled on one side and the costs on the other. The idea is to figure out which side ends up weighing the most, so you can make a decision that will benefit you more than it costs you!
| Layla's Pro-Con List |
| PROS (Benefits to Layla) | CONS (Costs to Layla) |
| Resume boost | Driving time |
| Experience related to her desired career | Finding rides |
| Possible scholarship opportunities | Must work 20 hours a week |
| Enjoys spending time with animals |
Power Structures and Social Norms
Some people believe that we help others because we learn through social norms that it is the right thing to do. We might do it out of reciprocity or based on social responsibility.
Two-Way Helping
When helping others, some do so on the basis of receiving help back.
The reciprocity norm is the belief that if we receive help from others, we should return (reciprocate) the favor later on.
We can see the reciprocity norm at play in all sorts of situations, like lending a lawnmower to a neighbor who lent you his hedge trimmers. He helped you in the past, so you feel like it's the right thing to do to lend him your lawnmower. You feel like you owe it to him because he helped you out in the past.
We smile back at those who smile at us or thank people when they pick up a pen that we dropped. We even do larger favors for people who have done the same for us. You might spend the day running errands for a neighbor who doesn't have a car since they cut your lawn all summer. The reciprocity norm is about helping those who also help us. Often, they are members of our in-groups or others of the same social class.
One-Way Helping
What about helping those who can't help us back? Do you feel obligated to help when you see someone in need who is much less fortunate than yourself? For most of us, we feel obligated due to the social responsibility norm.
The social-responsibility norm states that those with more wealth, status, or resources will help those who are in need.
Marilyn was born into an extremely wealthy family. She makes large donations to several charities for underprivileged children each year.
The social-responsibility norm is often woven into the practices of large institutions or religious groups. Universities and hospitals encourage volunteering and social efforts to aid the less fortunate in the community. Religious groups consider acts of service to others to be an expression of their faith.
Group Influence on Helping
The way we behave in the presence of others can be influenced by many things. If a group that you belong to tends to discuss specific topics, you may experience group polarization. Your beliefs about a specific topic become stronger or weaker based on discussions in your group.
Brandt belongs to his school's civil rights club. He has become more passionate about civil rights and more accepting of others. His weekly meetings and discussions with other group members keep him informed and engaged, and the passion of the other group members is contagious.
Why do social structures have such a profound effect on our beliefs and behaviors? Often it is because we are conforming to the group: changing our behavior or thoughts to align with a group. That's what is happening to Brandt, even though he may be unaware of it. Sometimes we conform in simple ways, like a teenager starting to dress a certain way to fit in with their friend group. However, sometimes conformity can influence dangerous or harmful behaviors.
Fig. 3, conforming to group behaviours may happen often, pixabay.com
Characteristics of Structures of Power
Groups give us a lot of information about what we should think and believe and do. It takes a very strong or stubborn person to resist the influence of a social group. If we don't conform to certain social norms, we risk severe consequences. We risk criticism, exclusion from our social network, and possibly even violence or death.
Why do we conform?
Generally, we either conform to gain approval or to align with an opinion someone shared with us. Conforming to gain approval and avoid disapproval is called normative social influence. Conforming because someone shared an opinion is called informational social influence.
Ryan really doesn't like country music, but all of his friends love it. He tells them that he loves it too because he wants to avoid their disapproval.
Sometimes we don't have a particular opinion or any practical experience with something, but we make a judgment about it based on the opinions of others. These opinions can come from our friends or family, or even from online forums and social media. The idea is that we don't have an experience or opinion of our own, so we borrow one from others.
Kara's mom asks her about a new restaurant that opened in town. Kara has never been there, but her boyfriend has, and he loved it! She tells her mom that it is a fantastic restaurant.
Conceptualizing Structures of Power
The way we think of our social identity influences our social behavior. If you think of yourself as an artist, you might dress in a creative way, attend artsy events, and hang out with artistic people. Attribution theory explains our behavior as either a product of our personality or our environment.
We all have enduring qualities in our personalities, so it's easy to think of someone's behavior as an extension of some innate quality. However, this isn't always the case. Sometimes we become different people in different situations.
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute another person's behavior to their disposition or personality and underestimate the influence of their situation or environment. (The reverse is also true: we tend to attribute our own behaviors to the influence of the situation or environment and not our personality or internal factors.)
Elise is a sought-after babysitter. Her clients love her because she is full of energy and keeps their kids entertained. She is always singing and dancing with them. They assume that Elise is an outgoing, bubbly, and expressive young woman.
They are shocked to learn that Elise is generally quiet and shy. Her clients never considered that she acts the way she does at work because of the situation and not her personality.
Structures of Power Examples
Do you remember the example of Joe earlier and his ideas about a retail worker strike? His opinion of the strike is colored by his own experiences, privilege, class, and social groups. Joe's experience looks very different from Sarah's. Her parents divorced when she was young, and they struggled to make ends meet, even though they worked multiple jobs. They were always at work, so they weren't very involved in Sarah's academic or social life. They didn't even know when her college applications were due.
Sarah worked during high school, so she missed out on all the extracurricular activities that college admissions boards like to see on a resume. There was no money for college tuition, and Sarah couldn't fathom adding student loan debt to her already financially overburdened life. She couldn't afford to take an unpaid internship because she needed to earn money to pay rent and living expenses. Right after graduating at 18, she took the first job she could find to help out and start making money as quickly as possible.
Joe's attitude towards the retail strike reflects his just-world belief that his social status is something he earned and therefore deserves. As a result, he views the misfortunes of others as something that they "earned" and therefore deserve. The just-world phenomenon bias involves assigning a level of virtue or morality to the class and social status of a person. People who are better off are seen as "good," and those with more struggles are seen as "bad." This leads to an identity of "us" versus "them." We work hard, and they are lazy.
Now imagine the just-world phenomenon combined with the in-group bias and the fundamental attribution error. The retail workers are "bad" in Joe's mind and members of different social groups than him. He unconsciously attributes their "faults" to internal, personal factors (not the situation). What if Joe had the chance to meet and talk to one of these retail employees?
He might find that they have some things in common. Maybe they are both members of certain social groups. As Joe listens to the other person's experiences, Joe might realize that he came to an opinion of the situation without enough information. His beliefs were based on his own experiences and not the experiences of the retail employees.
Social Power Structures - Key takeaways
- Class refers to the system, within a society, or ordering and dividing people according to their wealth or status.
- The ingroup is "us," our fellow group members, or the people we identify with; The outgroup is "them," members of other groups, or the people we do not identify with.
- Social exchange theory proposes that our social behavior aims to minimize costs and maximize benefits to ourselves and our groups.
- Conformity is when we change our behavior or thoughts to align with a group.
- Fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute a person's behavior to their disposition or personality and underestimate the influence of their situation or environment.
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