Social change Flashcards
Define social change
Social change refers to a change in attitudes, behaviours or laws. These aren’t just with individuals but on a large scale, how societies have changed. An historical example of social change is increased rights for women - The suffragette movement in the UK won the campaign for women’s right to vote in the 1920’s.
AO1: Social change
When a minority has an idea, they must remain consistent by having the same belief between members of the group, over a long period of time. They must also show commitment by showing dedication and making personal sacrifices. However, the minority also must be flexible and not completely rigid, by showing compromise if they want to change the majority opinion. If the minority remain consistent, committed and are flexible they can change the beliefs of the majority publicly and privately (Internalisation). Once a few members of the majority start to move towards the minority, the influence of the minority begins to gather momentum as more people pay attention until eventually the minority idea eventually becomes a majority idea (snowball effect). When the majority remembers the minority idea, but not that the idea came from the minority group the two become separated (social crypto amnesia). Social change has occurred, where there is a change in society’s attitudes, behaviours and laws.
What are the two evaluations for social change + a discussion (2)?
1) Real life evidence - suffragettes
2) Discussion - deviant
3) Alternative explanation - NSI
4) Discussion - alcohol
AO3: Real life evidence
There is real life evidence to support the role of minority influence in social influence processes in social change from the suffragette movement. The minority group of women showed consistency by having the same belief that women should have equal rights between all members, over a long period of time. They showed dedication by going on hunger strike and they were flexible as they accepted women having a vote at the age of 30 (men were 21) and then continued to campaign. The majority internalised the idea that women should have equal rights and now society’s attitudes, behaviours and laws have changed, thus demonstrating the role of social influence process in social change in the real world.
AO3: Discussion - suffragettes
However, critics argue that social change through minority influence may be limited as they can be seen as ‘deviant’ in the eyes of the majority. Therefore, the majority may not want to change their views to be in line with them as they may be seen as deviant themselves. Moreover, the message from the minority may then be forgotten whilst people focus on the ‘deviant’ behaviour instead. Thus, limiting minority influence as a social influence process in social change and perhaps the reason why the suffragette movement took a significant amount of time to successfully implement social change.
AO3: Alternative explanation
An alternative explanation for how minority groups can cause social change is through normative social influence. This is where minority groups can provide information about what other people are doing, such as telling young people that most young people do not smoke to deter smoking behaviours. This means that social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are doing, and how individuals can be seen as more desirable RATHER THAN through minority influence processes such as consistency, commitment and flexibility. Therefore, there could be several social influence processes that contribute to social change.
AO3: Discussion - NSI
However, Foxcroft conducted a meta-analysis of 70 studies where social change was attempted through social norms and normative social influence, including reducing alcohol consumption in students. It was found that often the use of normative social influence to bring about social change led to only a small reduction in drinking quantity and had no impact on drinking frequency. Therefore, this suggests that normative social influence does not produce long-term social change, and therefore limits the use of this social influence process to bring about social change.
