social change Flashcards
what is social change?
the ways in with a society develops over time to replace beliefs, attitudes and behaviour with new norms and expectations
real life examples of social change
- mlk and nelson mandela led civil rights movements and were consistent in their views, helping create social change
- when rosa parks was arrested this triggered the civil rights movement to end racial segregation laws in america
- the suffragettes were consistent in their views and made many sacrifices, leading to social change and women getting the right to vote
consistency
a consistent message appears more credible and helps convince a majority
deeper processing
the more people think about an issue they’re more able to challenge existing social norms to create change
drawing attention
the majority must be made aware of the need for change
the augmentation principle
when the majority pays attention to the risky acts by the minority and are more likely to implement their beliefs into their own viewpoint
the snowball effect
when the minority view gets the attention the majority, more people begin paying attention and the minority view gains momentum
social cryptoamnesia
the majority knows a social change has happened by the source of the change and the message have become dissociated through this process and they don’t recall how it happened
normative social influence
social change an be encouraged by reporting the behaviour of the majority to urge others to fit in with them
gradual commitment
once a small instruction has been followed its harder for larger requests to be denied. people will adopt a new way of believing gradually over time
give a strength of social change
1/1
research supports the effect of nsi in social change. nolan et al (2008) hung messages on house doors, encouraging people to reduce energy consumption by saying others in the neighbourhood were already doing so. some houses received a message but with no reference to other people. they found that those who received information about others significantly reduced their energy consumption, showing that conformity can lead to positive social change
give a limitation of social change
1/3
minority influence can act as a barrier to social change. bashir et al (2013) investigated why people resist social change when they know it is necessary and found that some minority groups often live up to the stereotypes associated with these groups, which may be off-putting for people. the majority often doesn’t want to be associated with these minority groups for fear of being similarly stereotypically labelled
give a limitation of social change
2/3
minority and majority influence may involve different levels of cognitive processing. moscovici believes a minority view forces people to think deeper about an issue, but mackie counters this and says when a majority acts different to us we are forced to think even deeper about their reasons. this casts doubt on the validity of moscovici’s minority influence theory, suggesting it may in fact be incorrect
give a limitation of social change
3/3
methodological issues may weaken links between social influence processes and social change. for example, most of the research providing an explanation for social change can each be criticised for methodological issues such as low generalisability or demand characteristics. this highlights there are doubts about the validity of some of the processes involved in social influence and social change
