Social Change Flashcards
Define Social Change
This Occurs when a society or section of society adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm
Define Social Norms Interventions
Attempts to correct misperceptions of the normative behaviour of peers in an attempt to change the risky behaviour of a target population.
Social change through minority influence
If an individual is exposed to a persuasive argument under certain conditions they may change their views to match those of the minority
How does Social Change happen
Minority influence occurs when a small group (minority) influences the opinion of a much larger group (majority). This can happen when the minority behaves in the following ways.
Three Factors for Social Change
Consistency
Flexibility
Commitment
Moscovici Procedure
Moscovici conducted an experiment in which female participants were shown 36 blue slides of different intensity and asked to report the colors. There were two confederates (the minority) and four participants (the majority).
In the first part of the experiment the two confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides. They were totally consistent in their responses. In the second part of the experiment they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times. In this case they were inconsistent in their answers. A control group was also used consisting of participants only – no confederates.
Moscovici Findings
When the confederates were consistent in their answers about 8% of participants said the slides were green. When the confederates answered inconsistently about 1% of participants Said the slides were green.
Explain Commitment for a reason of social change
When the majority is confronted with someone with self-confidence and dedication to take a popular stand and refuses to back own, they may assume that he or she has a point.
Explain Flexibility for a reason of social change
if they appear flexible and compromising, they are likely to be seen as less extreme, as more moderate, cooperative and reasonable. As a result, they will have a better chance of changing majority views.
The role of social influence processes in social change
Social change occurs when a whole society adopts a new belief or behavior which then becomes widely accepted as the ‘norm’. Social influence processes involved in social change include minority influence, internal locus of control and disobedience to authority.
What is crypto amnesia.
The majority opinion then becomes law, and people have to obey this law. Once this happens, the minority opinion has become the dominant position in society, and people do often not even remember where the opinion originated from.
What is the Snowball effect
It has been found that once the minority begin to persuade people round to their way of thinking, a snowball effect begins to happen. This means that more and more people adopt the minority opinion, until gradually the minority becomes the majority.
