Clyde Beasley and Social Influence

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Prison: A Social Nightmare

Social psychology is the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. What happens when there is only one way to do things without being teased, mimicked or ever bullied? We conform. Even though the standards are different now than is has been in the past, the theory is the same: for most people, whatever they think will make their life easiest, they will conform to.

Clyde Beasley has been a very good example of conformation in his life time, even though he is a highly independent person now. He has been imprisoned twice for running a drug operation and been incarcerated a in level four maximum security prison. Only during the second sentence of over 10 years did he realize how he needed to change his life and since he has been free he has led an entirely legal life without so much as a minor traffic citation. While he was in prison however it is impossible to be yourself

Even while he was still in prison Clyde began to think of ways he could become successful in a legal way. His aspirations had always been fame and wealth which was the reason he began to deal in the first place. He came up with ideas of inventions he could sell while still in prison and now runs many company's and a non-profit organization: HIPP-MO-TIZE, which is focused on youth and women.

In prison no matter what your culture and style is like you are forced to conform to a race standard, if you are Asian you have to be like all the other Asians, if you are white, you are forced to associate yourself with only the other white people. This is a very extreme example of normative social influence. Normative social influence, when a person changes their actions to either be accepted or to avoid being rejected, can be seen in any culture you observe. In schools you can see otherwise intelligent kids using words and talking in ways that can be classified as absurd and brainless. They will not do homework because it is considered uncool.

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