10. social change Flashcards
what are the 6 steps of the creation of social change?
- Drawing attention through social proof
- Consistency
- Deeper processing of the issue -
- The augmentation principle
- The snowball effect
- Social cryptomnesia
USING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO EXPLAIN SOCIAL CHANGE
2 . Consistency -
Civil rights activists represented a minority of the American population, but their position remained consistent. Millions of people took part in many marches over several years, always presenting the same non-aggressive messages.
USING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO EXPLAIN SOCIAL CHANGE
4 . The augmentation principle -
Individuals risked their lives numerous times. For example, the freedom riders were mixed ethnic groups who boarded buses in the south, challenging racial segregation of transport. Many freedom riders were beaten. This personal risk indicates a strong belief and reinforces (or augments) their message.
USING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO EXPLAIN SOCIAL CHANGE
1 . Drawing attention through social proof -
In the 1950s, black and white segregation applied to all parts of America. There were black neighbourhoods and, in the southern states of America, places such as certain schools and restaurants were exclusive to whites. The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to this situation, providing social proof of the problem.
USING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO EXPLAIN SOCIAL CHANGE
3 . Deeper processing of the issue -
The activism meant that many people who had simply accepted the status quo began to think deeply about the unjustness of it.
USING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO EXPLAIN SOCIAL CHANGE
6 . Social cryptomnesia (people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened) -
Social change clearly did come about so the south is quite a different place now. But some people have no memory (crypto amnesia) of the events that led to that change.
USING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO EXPLAIN SOCIAL CHANGE
5 . The snowball effect -
Activists (e.g. Martin Luther King) gradually got the attention of the US government. More and more people backed the minority position. In 1964 the US Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination, marking a change from minority to majority support for civil rights.
SOCIAL CHANGE - LESSONS FROM CONFORMITY RESEARCH
Asch highlighted the importance of dissent in one of his variations in which one confederate gave correct answers throughout the procedure. This broke the power of the majority, encouraging others to do likewise. Such dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change.
A different approach is one used by environmental and health campaigns
which exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence. They do this by providing information about what other people are doing. Examples include reducing litter by printing normative messages on litter bins (Bin it - others do) and preventing young people from taking up smoking (telling them that most other young people do not smoke). In other words, social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing.
SOCIAL CHANGE - LESSONS FROM OBEDIENCE RESEARCH
Milgram’s research clearly demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models.
In the variation where a confederate Teacher refuses to give shocks to the Learner, the rate of obedience in the genuine participants plummeted.
Zimbardo suggested
how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment.
Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one.
People essentially ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour.
AO3 - limitation of SOCIAL CHANGE
role of deeper processing - Mackie (majority creates it not minority)
One limitation is that deeper processing may not play role in how minorities bring about social change.
Some people are supposedly converted because they think more deeply about the minority’s views. Mackie disagrees and presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views. This is because we like to believe that other people share our views and think in the same ways as us. When we find that a majority believes something different, then we are forced to think long and hard about their arguments and reasoning.
This means that a central element of minority influence has been challenged, casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change.
AO3 - strength of SOCIAL CHANGE
research support - Nolan (energy-use habits)
One strength is that research has shown that social influence processes based on psychological research do work.
Nolan et al. aimed to see if they could change people’s energy-use habits. The researchers hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego, California every week for one month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. As a control, some residents had a different message that just asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour. There were significant decreases in energy usage in the first group compared to the second.
This shows that conformity (majority influence) can lead to social change through the operation of normative social influence. Therefore, it is a valid explanation.
AO3 - strength of SOCIAL CHANGE
minority influence explains social change - Nemeth
Another strength is that psychologists can explain how minority influence brings about social change.
Nemeth claims social change is due to the type of thinking that minorities inspire. When people consider minority arguments, they engage in divergent thinking. This type of thinking is broad rather than narrow, in which the thinker actively searches for information and weighs up more options. Nemeth argues this leads to better decisions and more creative solutions to social issues.
This shows why dissenting minorities are valuable - they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way that majorities cannot.
