social change

• Social Change

  occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs, and ways of doing things.
• Examples of social change

  - Civil right march's - 1950's USA areas exclusively for whites. A minority Marched but they were consistent in message and intent.

  - Deeper processing - meant people who previously accepted status quo began thinking it unjust.

  - Augmentation principle - 'Freedom riders' mixed racial groups got on buses in the south to challenge segregated seating. Many beaten and suffered mob violence.

  - Snowball effect. Activist eg Martin Luther King) got the attention of US government. 1964 Civil rights act passed prohibiting discrimination. A change from minority to majority civil rights.

  - Social cryptomnesia accurred. - People know hat change happened but they don't know how. Social change came back but some people have no memory of the events leading up to it.
• What effect do dissenters have on social change?

  Dissenters make social change move likely. Evidence - Asch's research. One confederate gave correct answers. This broke majority power encourages others to dissent. Demonstrates potential for social change.
• What effect does majority influence and normative social influence (NSI) have on social change?

  Environmental and health campaigners exploit conformity by appealing to NSI. They provide information about what others are doing eg reducing litter by printing normative message on bins ('Bin it-others do'). Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to the majority's behaviour.
• Social Crystomesia

  Refers to people having a memory that a change occurred but don't remember how it happened. (People forget how social changed occurred).
• How do disobedient models make change more likely?

  Milgram's research: disobedient models who refused to give a shock The rate in genuine participants plummeted.
• Does gradual commitment lead to 'drift'?

  Zimbardo (2007) :once small instruction obeyed difficult to resist a bigger one. People drift into a new kind of behaviour.
• Evaluation: Weaknesses of Social Change


  - It has been argued by Nemeth (1986) that minority influence is only indirectly effective in bringing about social change. E.g. it's taken decades for attitudes against drink-driving & smoking to shift. Social change occurs SLOWLY.
• Who investigted whether NSI could bring about Social Change?

  Nolan et al. (2008)
• Procedure of Nolan et al (2008)


  He investigated whether social influence led to a reduction in energy consumption in a community.

  They hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego, California every week for one month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. So resident was influenced by NSI.
• Gradual commitment


  when you start with a small commitment, but this gradually increases and before you know it you have made more of a commitment than you intended.
• A limitation of social influence and social change - minority influence

  Nemeth (1986) suggests the effects of minority influence are indirect and delayed. It took decades for attitudes to change against drink driving and smoking. INDIRECT - majority is influenced only on matters related to central issue not the issue itself. DELAYED - effects not seen for some time. Therefore using minority influence to explain social change is limited because the effects are fragile and its role in social influence is narrow.
• The deeper processing has been questioned as a limitation?

  Moscovici suggested minority influence makes people thinks deeply which is a different cognitive process from majority influence.

  Mackie (1987) disagrees, arguing that majority influence creates deeper processing if you don't share their views. We believe that others think in the same ways as us. When we realise that the majority think differently to us we are forced to think hard about their arguments. So a central element of minority influence is challenged and may be incorrect casting a doubt on the validity of moscovici' s theory
• Are methodological issues in this area of research a problem?

  Explanations of social change rely on Moscovici, Asch and Milgram studies.

  These can be evaluated in terms of methodology, mainly over the artificial nature of the tasks and whether the group dynamics reflect real-life. These criticisms apply to the evaluation of explanations for the link between social influence processes and social change.
• Social change definition


  - When a society as a whole adopts a new belief, changes their way of behaving as the view becomes the 'norm
• Initialisation of Social Change


  - The minority draws ATTENTION to the issue & raises AWARENESS of the two opposing views between the minority and majority (e.g. through protests, campaigns). This message is CONSISTENTLY presented on different occasions to CHALLENGE views.

  
  

  - The minority are seen to make huge SACRIFICES for their beliefs and show their commitment by taking RISKS so that their messages become more powerful (e.g. imprisonment, loss of income)

  
  

  -The minority group's message slowly spreads across the majority creating a 'SNOWBALL' effect leading to social changes in some people.
• Maintenance of Social Change


  - Information is spread so that individuals are aware of how OTHER PEOPLE are now behaving

  
  

  - This new SOCIAL NORM of behaving becomes to be perceived as the typical behaviour by the majority (e.g. through advertising) so even more people are PERSUADED to change their behaviour.
• Finalisation of Social Change


  - Government and officials create RULES & LAWS which force the social change upon everybody else.
• Snowball effect


  - Where something once small and relatively insignificant grows exponentially at a swift pace
• Socio-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.
• Example of Social Change: Rosa Parks


  - In 1955, Rosa sat in a white-person area only on a bus, despite it being illegal due to the segregation laws.

  - Bus driver asked Rosa to give her seat up for a white man, but she refused and was arrested

  - This act lead to segregation laws being changed by Supreme Court and symbolised an important change in the Civil Right's Movement
• Example of Social Change: The Suffragettes


  - Suffragettes campaigned for equal rights of women to vote in the late 19th Century.

  - They produced leaflets, organising meetings and petitions to try to change the law

  -Some of the other tactics they used included chaining themselves to railings and smashing windows. Many women were imprisoned for their actions, and often went on hunger strike.

  
  

  -The most famous act was that of Emily Davison, who in 1913 threw herself in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby and died 4 days later.
• Evaluation of Social Change - Strength: Role of NSI in social change (Nolan 2008)


  -Nolan hung messages on front of doors of houses.

  -When messages were displayed about how most resident neighbours were reducing their energy, there were significant decreases in energy consumption (Nolan 2008)compared to control group who saw messages to save energy with no reference to other peoples behaviour

  - Social norm intervention maintains social change if other people perceive behaviour are being typical they will change theirs.

  -Conformity can lead to social change through the operation of NSI
• Evaluation of Social Change - Weakness: Change is delayed and slow

  - Social change through minority influence is a SLOW process and often has very little effect initially on the majority in creating social change as they are often perceived as being 'deviant'

  - Minority influences in social change may be ineffective when the social change needs to happen quickly