Analysis of Persuasion and Conformity and Obedience Term Paper

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Persuasion is defined as the procedure through which a message or information provokes a change in attitudes, beliefs or behaviors (Myers, 2013). In essence, the change in thoughts, attitudes, behaviors or beliefs through persuasion takes place without coercion or duress but is largely influenced by the impact of the message or information on the individual. Persuasion tends to take place is a set up that involves communication, which entails conveying a message or information. Even though not all communication is designed to be persuasive but to inform and entertain, it ends up being persuasive based on the impact it has on the receiver of the information. Therefore, persuasion is regarded as the process through which an individual's thoughts, behaviors or attitudes are influenced by communication from others.

Based on this description, persuasion comprises several elements that act as the path that result in a change of attitude, beliefs or behaviors through communication from others. These factors or elements that lead to persuasion include the communicator, message, channel, and audience. With regards to the communicator, his/her attractiveness and credibility play an important role in the process of persuasion while the content of the message determines the recipient's response and probable persuasion. The communication channel utilized by the communicator determines active or passive experience while the audience relates to their thought processes and how they receive the message.

Persuasion can be explicit i.e. central route or implicit i.e. peripheral route based on approaches utilized by the communicator (Myers, 2013). Explicit persuasion takes place when interested individuals focus on the arguments in the message and respond with positive thoughts. In contrast, implicit persuasion takes place when individuals are influenced by incidental signs like the communicator's credibility and focuses on signals that provoke automatic acceptance without critical thinking.

Persuasion in Advertisement

Thales S. Teixeira conducted a study on the reasons people pay attention to video advisements as well as when they do so. The author stated that video ads have become more prevalent as marketers have increased demand for consumers' attention, which has largely been influenced by the proliferation of new brands and products (Teixeira, 2015). Therefore, marketers are increasingly developing and utilizing video advertisements in order to gain the attention of consumers. However, full consumer attention can be obtained when the advertising strategy focuses on persuasion through information, which is more common in the context of cinema or video ads.

This article relates to persuasion since it highlights important elements for persuasion through video advertisements. First, the communicator i.e. marketer designs advertisements that are geared towards providing specific messages or information to customers about new products or brands. In the advertising world, communicators are increasingly designing their messages in an entertaining manner because consumers pay more attention to advertisements that entertain them. With regards to message content, video advertisements are based on two aspects i.e. reason and emotion depending on the target audience. According to Teixeira (2015), persuasive ads are those that focus on persuasion through imparting product or brand information and incorporating entertaining content. To this extent, persuasion in advertisement depends on how the advertisement engages the customers' attention regardless of numerous distractions and alternatives. As part of ensuring that advertisements have persuasive content, marketers should incorporate inviting music, colorful images, and attractive animation in their video ads. This article primarily highlights the significance of communicator strategies, message content, communication channel, and audience in creating persuasive advertisements.

Conformity and Obedience

Conformity can be described as changing one's behavior or thoughts in order to match the standards of a group. In essence, conformity is change in belief or behavior because of actual or perceived pressure from a group an individual belongs to. Therefore, conformity emerges from an individual's willingness to accept the opinions of others regarding reality. There are two major reasons for an individual's conforming i.e. normative social influence and informational social influence (Myers, 2013).

Normative social influence is impact that comes from an individual's desire to obtain approval or shun rejection. In this case, a person complies with or accepts normative behavior because of the likelihood of severe punishment or consequence if the behavior is not respected. On the other hand, informational social influence occurs when the group may offer significant information but stubborn individuals don't listen to others.

According to Myers (2013), there are three kinds of conformity i.e. compliance, obedience, and acceptance. While compliance implies abiding by social norms or through request, acceptance is more of inward conformity.

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On the other hand, obedience refers to an individual's compliance to social pressures. Even though this concept does not necessarily imply social coercion, the individual's authority or group standard play a crucial role in obedience, especially in relation to conformity.

In relation to conformity, obedience is brought by several factors including depersonalization or distance of the victim. Moreover, obedience comes from the proximity and legitimacy of the authority, liberating aspects of the group influence such as provision of social support, and institutional authority. The ultimate by-product of conformity and obedience is changes in behaviors or beliefs to match group standards.

Conformity and Obedience in Infancy and Raising Kids

An article on the impact of parenting style on child development demonstrates the different parenting style and their influence on infants and the process of raising kids. Based on the article, there are four major parenting styles i.e. authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and unresolved/neglectful styles. These parenting styles differ with regards to the approaches and strategies used by parents when raising their kids. Authoritative parenting style involves establishing realistic expectations for their children and offering fair/natural consequences ("Influence of Parenting Style on Child Development," n.d.). On the contrary, authoritarian parents are usually very strict whereas permissive parents always love and are warm but do not establish suitable rules or restrictions for their children. Neglectful parents are always indifferent and uninvolved when raising their kids since they do not respond to their children's needs. As a result of difference in approaches and/or strategies, these parenting styles have varying influences on infants and raising kids.

This article has a strong link to the theory of conformity and obedience in psychology since it demonstrates how infants or children comply with the parenting styles utilized by their parents and/or caregivers. The basis of the link between this article and the theory of conformity and obedience is institutional authority and proximity and legitimacy of the authority. As previously mentioned, these two aspects are some of the major factors that breed conformity and obedience. Parents and/or caregivers are legitimate authorities over infants or children since they act as leaders or institutional authority of the family. Therefore, the strategies employed by these individuals have considerable direct impact on children because of their authority over their infants. In essence, how parents exercise their authority when raising kids determine outcomes because kids conform and obey their parents as part of family standards.

The major way through which parenting style impacts infants' conformity and obedience is normative social influence, which is influence brought by an individual's desire to obtain approval or shun rejection. This type of conformity and obedience is usually produced by social change because the individual needs to fulfill the expectations of others in order to gain acceptance. A good example of normative social influence in an infant's conformity and obedience is the authoritative parenting style where parents set reasonable expectations for their children in addition to providing fair consequences ("Influence of Parenting Style on Child Development," n.d.). When subjected to this parenting style, children work towards fulfilling these expectations in order to gain acceptance of their parents. During this process, children have opportunities for independence through which they express their opinions. As children work towards fulfilling the realistic expectations, they eventually develop high self-esteem, social skills, and improved capabilities to work with others.

Normative social influence is also evident in other parenting styles as evidenced in children's conformity and obedience. In the authoritarian parenting style, children tend to comply and obey their parents in attempts to avoid rejection or severe punishment associated with disobedience. In this case, a child's conformity and obedience is largely driven by the need to avoid the firm consequences or punishment for disobedience of the rigid rules set by parents. In the permissive parenting style, children tend to conform to the freedom to make their own choices by becoming irresponsible because of the social image they have of their parents and/or authority figures. This is also true in the uninvolved/neglectful parenting style where neglect by parents generates several problems for children. This is primarily because children conform to the social image they have of their parents, which is a crucial aspect of normative social influence in the theory of conformity and obedience......

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