Attitude Towards Politics A variety of factors, including but not limited to; family, peers, the media and education shape political attitudes. Many things influence the way people feel about politics, and depending on the immediate environments, views can change dramatically. Family can influence the political party that people belong to. Family can also influence the way in which a person does or does not vote. If a family has traditionally voted democratic, chances are that the children will vote the same way. There is an emotional attachment to the way in which a family has voted, and that affects the way the new voter will vote. In part, people vote the way their family has because they do not want to be different then their family, there is also the fear of letting their family down. On the other side of the coin, the new voter could go totally against his or her family. Peers play an important role in guiding the new voter. Regardless of what people might say, they want to fit in. In order to avoid being different people will tend to follow others and have the same...
...adults compared to older adults were less likely to respond that voting was extremely important for good citizenship (133). He concludes that it is too late for the generation of young adults that do not feel voting is an important civic responsibility, however, that it is not too late to convince them that politics matter by showing them that they are giving their opportunity to make important decisions that may impact their lives to others who have different ideas. One may agree with Wattenberg’s idea that habits follow people throughout their lives instead of changing as they cycle in life. His personal accounts are an impactful way to illustrate the importance of building a sense of duty at a young age and carrying that responsibility throughout one’s life.
People often ask me why am I a democrat and who has influenced me on the political beliefs I have today. My answer is always my family. I grew up in a home with elders who support the Democratic Party. I have had great teachers in my life who have influenced me also to read and learn more about politics. Because of this I am able to create my own opinions and politically think about certain issues that are going on.
In today’s society individuals/groups tend to behave, respond, adapt or become ineffectual depending on their surrounding environment. Individuals find it less tedious to conform to the majority vote than to stand out and speak their truth. Conformance has become a norm amongst individuals; we are pressured to conform to the majority vote just to feel socially appropriate. How can individuals grow and develop their own personality without voicing their opinions? Larger organizations tend to construe people into thinking they’re correct and what they are preaching is appropriate. When a group becomes institutionalized as an organization, it evolves shared beliefs, values, and assumptions (page 226). Formed by spontaneously developed relationships, formal groups are created by larger organizations. It is very important for formal groups to focus their attention on a set of beliefs, values, and composition. Introduced by Irving Janis, the phenomenon of “groupthink” was introduced to correlate group conformance on a higher level. Obtaining group dominance is crucial to many high-level decision makers in the government. This phenomenon has led to incompetent and disastrous decisions.
Party identification is the political party that an individual categorizes them self with. Political parties came about as a way to organize citizens with similar beliefs and attitudes. These parties then attempt to influence the government by electing members into office. Today there are two main parties people can identify: Republican and Democrat. There is also a third choice, being an Independent, but for the purpose of this paper this group will not be recognized as a political party. These reasons will be discussed later. There are many different theories as to why people do or do not identify with a political party, including social psychology, issue related, and psychological attachments. I believe the social psychology theory has the right idea. Sociology is about studying human society and how it develops and functions. So, it makes sense that social factors would have a big impact on whether we identify with a political party or not.
Socialization is a gradual process that takes place as we grow up. It is the process that aids in developing attitudes and opinions that allow us get along within a society. These beliefs affect the political views we hold later in life. Through social agencies such as family, schools, peers, and media we become aware of social rules and develop a social identity. (Introduction to Sociology Pg. 96) A product of this development is political socialization, which is the process of learning political attitudes and behaviors. The idea of political socialization helps in providing the answers to the questions concerning who votes. It aids in explaining how and why people participate in politics. The strongest agent in political socialization is the family. What this means is that most children adopt beliefs similar to those held by their parents. Therefore most people will believe in and vote for issues that are important to members of their family’s. The extent to which an individual is involved in the political process is shaped by his or her family’s level of involvement. For example, a child is less likely to vote if they are raised by parents who don’t regularly go to the polls on Election Day. Children of course, don’t always copy their parents’ political learning’s, but are often heavily influenced by them. As a result, most people end up favoring the political party that their parents generally identify with. Social Characteristics also affect how an individual will participate in politics. Whether a person is young or old, black or white, rich or poor, northerner or southerner will have a heavy impact on his or her political opinions and behavior.
In order for a politician to make his way up the ranks, he usually needs to build a strong intra-ethnic coalition followed by inter-ethnic support. This can be a difficult task because the the politician has to please everyone, which makes him seem “bland” to his original supporters.
The want for acceptance and the need to be liked are natural desires within human nature, especially within political context. Politicians are often criticized for bending their beliefs and making different promises to different groups, often even contrasting in their ultimate goal, but is there really another option? In order to win an election and maintain power, one must win the support of the majority of the constituent. In order to do so, he must sacrifice some of his own goals and thoughts to become what the people want, what the median voter wants; he must become who they want to represent them, who they want in office, and, most immediately, for whom they want to vote. Only by taking on this median voter approach on some scale, can a candidate even hope to become more than a candidate.
Conformity, or going along with the crowd, is a unique phenomenon that manifests itself in our thoughts and behaviors. It’s quite simple to identify countless examples of the power of conformity in virtually all aspects of social life. Conformity influences our opinions and relationships with others, often to a higher extent than we realize. It is posited that people generally conform to the group in order to fit in and avoid rejection or because they truly believe the group is more knowledgeable than they are. After analyzing numerous studies and experiments on the nature of conformity, one will find that the motive of social acceptance is the greatest driver of conformity.
“Conformity is a form of social influence that involves a change in behavior or belief so that one can fit in with a certain group” (McLeod). Such a change is a response to imagined (which involves the pressure of expectations or social norms) or real (which involves the presence of others) group pressure. Another definition of conformity can be “yielding to group pressures”. Group pressure can take many forms, for example persuasion, teasing, bullying, criticism etc. Conformity is also referred to as group pressure or majority influence. The term conformity is mostly used to show an agreement to the position of the majority, and this is brought about by either by the desire to be liked or to fit in, or just to match a social role. The aim of this paper is to argue that conformity is among people because they always live in groups-work groups, family, political, religious and social groups. At the same instance, they are adjusted to obey authority. A conformist mentality makes it easy for people to be influenced by others.
In society it is hard to break away from boundaries, people like to stick with majorities vote. Ever notice why people follow the crowd? Even though they probably don’t agree with what they stand for. This is because people do not want to stick out and be the odd one. They like to feel secure and the fact that they’re not alone. People tend to just follow the crowd due to their lack of
Such factors are their educational background, socioeconomic status, gender and other demographics. There will be a definite difference between a person who has an excellent academic background and a person who does not have such qualification. In the same way, socioeconomic status of a person also decides how well a person engages politically (Riedel and Sullivan, 2001). For instance, an individual who comes from a very lower class will not pay heed to political system of the country because his basic concern is to feed his children and family. His priorities will be different from a person who has all basic necessities. In the same way a middle aged person who has an adequate knowledge and experience regarding the political system of a country and a young person who is just an amateur will have significant differences of political attitudes and political efficacy. So attitudes and experiences also affect the political efficacy and ultimately the voting behaviors of the individuals (Sheerin and Celia Anne, 2007). Mass Media is one of the tools to build these attitudes and political
There has been a long debate between the relationship of ideological and political preferences and partisanship; whether the former affects the latter or vice versa. Carsey and Layman argued that both cause changes in each other, however, their causal influence depends not only on how individuals attach importance on the issue, but also on their degree of awareness on the partisan differences towards the issue. It is true, and I agree, that
This essay concerns social influence in general. Aspects of social influence as such as majority influence and minority influence will be discussed in terms of their underlying psychological processes and how they differ. Majority influence or conformity refers to the desire to belong or to fit in within a particular group which involves adopting certain attributes, behaviour and attitudes of a particular group. As a result individuals consequently experience group pressure (in Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). Minority influence on the other hand, refers to the influence that the minority exert over the majority in that the majority come to accept the beliefs and behaviours of a minority (in Baron et al. 2008).
The general opinion is that voters do not come in predefined groups. Cleavage divides voters by two: lawyers and opponents on a certain subject, or vote for a certain party.
They are the ones who support their children during those life decisions. Family is not always blood related. Finally, family is forever, family will never go away. Support is a massive part of the family. Family watches their kids and other family members fail and succeed all the time.