U2L3: Social Science and Social change Flashcards
what do anthropologists do?
- regard cultures as the focus of their study (constantly changing)
- believe that the change process is gradual and cultures don’t change suddenly
- They look into the past and present of cultures
- area of study: kinship, family, social organizations
Define culture:
Shared symbols, values, beliefs, and behaviours of most members in the society
What is an example of something an anthropologist would study?
families:
PAST - Women stayed at home, only women got maternity leave, men couldn’t show emotions, women didn’t receive education
PRESENT - Both men/women can have maternity leave, gay/lesbians, freedom to choose if u want a kid
What is Invention (source of social change):
New products, ideas and social patterns that impact the way ppl live (ex: internet, social media, ai)
What is Discovery (source of social change):
Finding something that was previously unknown to a culture (ex: intelligent life on another planet)
What is Diffusion (source of social change):
The spread of ideas, methods, and tools from one culture to another (ex: acupuncture from asia to canada, yoga from india to canada)
What is Acculturation (source of social change):
People/groups ADOPT the ways of another culture, typically the dominant culture, through INTERACTIONS between the diff cultures (ex: Punjabi family celebrates Thanksgiving)
What is globalization?
The interconnectedness between world cultures and economies.
How can globalization be good, or bad? Use course examples
Watching the video on globalization revealed:
GOOD - cultures can spread and market themselves through social media, easier to study the culture of other people.
BAD - You loose the OG culture to allow globalization —> destroys culture.
what do psychologists do?
- They focus on ppls behaviour and attitudes (ex: the social issue of drinking and driving —> psychologists may question why we do it even if we know its dangerous)
- They understand how individuals contribute to the group and their ability to spark change within the group.
- Focus: how and why ppl change their thoughts/behaviours and what effect it has on society
What is cognitive consistency?
- People want to avoid attitudes that conflict w/eachother
- People change due to the discomfort they experience when 2 attitudes conflict w/eachother (ex: gonna stop smoking cuz its unhealthy)
- attitude and action have to align so that change can happen
- Mental comfort from harmony = change
What is cognitive dissoncance?
- What one does conflicts with what one believes/thinks
- One can change their behaviour to make it more consistent/reinforce their attitude
- Mental discomfort form conflict = change
- resolve: changing ones beliefs to RATIONALIZE the inconsistency (ex: I smoke, but I workout so it balances)
what does sociology study?
- studies the interactions/conflict within groups to determine how society functions (ex: No phone policy –> minister declared the policy to resolve the lack of focus among students)
- all societies are governed by NORMS (required to maintain social order and stability)
- They examine the previous conditions that caused change to happen in the first place (a new system is usually the result of the demise of an old one)
- Predict future trends through statistical analysis
What is ‘direction of change’ (4 factors of social change)
If a societies progress is going + or - (benefiting or not)
What is ‘rate of change’ (4 factors of social change)
how fast change is occurring - is the degree of change slow, moderate or fast
