Social Change Flashcards
Social change.
Refers to the ways in which a society (rather than an individual) develops over time to replace beliefs, attitudes and behaviour with new norms and expectations.
7 processes.
Consistency. Deeper processing. Drawing attention. Augmentation principle. Snowball effect. Social cryptomnesia. Gradual commitment.
Consistency.
Displaying consistency of viewpoint and intended outcome is beneficial in bringing about social change.
Consistent message appears more credible and can help to convince a majority.
Deeper processing.
The more people think about the matter, rather than blindly accepting to it, the more they will, in turn, be able to challenge the existing social norms to bring about change.
Drawing attention.
In order for a social change to occur, the majority must first of all be made aware of the need for the change.
Augmentation principle.
When the majority pays attention to selfless and risky actions being taken by the minority group and is more likely to integrate the group’s opinion into their own personal viewpoints due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority.
Snowball effect.
Once the minority viewpoint has got the attention of some of majority group, more and more ppl begin paying attention and minority viewpoint gathers momentum, much like a snowball growing in size when rolled along a snowy field.
Social cryptomnesia.
Majority knows that a social change has occurred but source of change and message itself have become disassociated through the process of social cryptomnesia and they don’t recall how it has happened.
Gradual commitment.
Once a small instruction has been followed, it is harder for larger requests to be declined.
Referred to ‘foot in the door’ technique and means that ppl effectively find themselves adopting a new way of behaving gradually over a period of time.
Conformity.
Asch highlighted the importance of dissent in one variation where one confederate gave correct answers throughout. Broke the power of the majority, encouraging others to do likewise. Dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change.
Diff approach by environmental and health campaigns - exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI; by giving info about what others are doing; social change encouraged by drawing attention to what majority are doing.
Obedience.
Milgram’s research clearly shows importance of disobedient role models.
Confederate teacher refuses to give shock; rate dropped.
Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through process of gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one. People drift into a new kind of behaviour.
Limitation - Methodological issues may undermine the links drawn between social influence processes and social change.
For example, many of the research studies providing an explanation for social change, such as those conducted by Asch, Milgram and Moscovici, can themselves be criticised for issues in their methodology ranging from low generalizability to demand characteristics.
Means that there are doubts about the validity of the processes involved in social influence and social change due to the research informing the theories.
Limitaiton - Minority and majority influence may involve different levels of cognitive processing.
Moscovici believes that a minority viewpoint forces individuals to think more deeply about the issue.
However, Mackie (1987) counters this, suggesting the opposite to be true. She suggests that when a
majority group is thinking or acting in a way that is different from ourselves we are forced to think even more deeply about their reasons. This, therefore, casts doubt on the validity of Moscovici’s minority influence theory, suggesting it may be incorrect.
Limitation - Minority influence can be a barrier to social change.
Bashir et al. (2013) were interested in investigating why so many people resist social change even when they believe it to be needed. It was found that some minority groups, such as environmental activists or feminists, often live up to the stereotypes associated with those groups, which can be off‐putting for outsiders. This means that the
the majority often does not want to be associated with a minority for fear of being stereotypically labelled.
Strength - There is research support for the role of normative social influence as a process for social change.
Nolan et al. (2008) conducted a study that spanned one month in California and involved hanging messages on the front doors of people’s houses in San Diego encouraging them to reduce energy consumption by indicating that most other residents in the neighbourhood were already doing this. As a means of control, some houses received a message about energy usage but with no reference to the behaviour of other people in the area. It was found that the experimental group significantly lowered their energy consumption, showing that conformity can lead to positive social change.
