Download What is Social Change? - Challenge and Change in Society

UNIT 2 – SOCIAL
CHANGE
Social Change in
Sociology, Anthropology,
and Psychology
Learning Goal
• Identify causes of social change and explain its impact on
individuals and society
• Demonstrate understanding of social science theories related to
social change
What is Social Change?
• Social change refers to changes in the way society is organized, the
beliefs, and/or practices of the people who live in that society.
• Change in the social institutions, the rules of social behavior, value
systems or the social relations of a society or community
• Predictable (demographics)
• Unpredictable (Invention of Airplane)
Causes of Social Change
• Geography: natural forces, proximity to other countries
• External events
• Technology
• Human factor:
• Charismatic leadership
• Modernized elites
• Population wanting change
The Opposite of social change – Social continuity
• Social continuity - means that
there are barriers and
structures within society
which are built to resist
change
Impediments of Social Change
• Religion
• Traditional Cultural Values
• Expense of the change
RELIGION
• Religion is a traditional institution that does not often change
• In some cases religion is the main basis for the law and culture in
a society
• In some cases, religion does not change to meet the needs of a
society – example is the legal definition of family in Canada
(changed) vs. the religious definition (stayed the same)
TRADITIONAL CULTURAL VALUES
• Impediment/barrier to social change
• People unwilling to accept social change
• Push to stick with old cultural practices and avoid
modern changes
Expense of change
• The price of change might be too
high for a society to be willing to
support
• Canadian Social Example – introduction
of government health care in the 1960s
– social values vs. tax payers $$$$, 1
year maternity/paternity leave
• Increasing cost of post-secondary
education
• Can cause some to feel excluded
from the social change because
they cannot afford it
THEORIES OF CHANGE
Sociology and Change
• Focus of Studies:
• massive shifts in behaviour and attitudes of groups or
whole societies
• The Process:
• Change is inevitable
• Should be predictable - patterned
Sociology: Example Questions
• How does social change come about?
• How can a society restrict or control change?
• How can societies reduce negative social trends such as physical or
substance abuse?
Sociology Theories for Explaining Change (early
approach)
• Decay – (Taken from Adam & Eve Genesis story)
• all societies began in an ideal state and as societies inevitably
become more materialistic and less spiritual, they become less
able to provide for and protect its citizens
• Cycles of Growth and Decay –
• societies are not always headed for destruction, but they have
ups and downs
• Progress –
• change as the result of continual progress (build on the
experience of past societies)
Sociology Theories of Social Change
• Tension and Adaptation Theory (Structural Functionalists in 1930s):
• When a part of society diverges from the rest and causes a disturbance.
• Accumulation:
• Humans gathering increasing amounts of knowledge and technology – this
leads to change
• Diffusion of innovation:
• an innovation is developed and becomes mainstream (integrated into
society)
• Role models introducing change
Anthropology and Change
 Focus of Studies: Culture – the way of living of a group of people,
including their traditions, customs and beliefs that is passed from
one generation to another.
 The Process:
 Constantly changing (continuous)
 Gradual process (slow)
 Change process is gradual unless a culture is destroyed by another
culture
Culture is Made Up of 4 Interrelated Parts:
1.
Physical Environment –
• (e.g. length of seasons)
2.
Level of Technology – depends on the need of that society and
its existing culture
• (e.g. light-rail transit seen as solution to overcrowded highways but not in
culture where foot transportation still common)
3.
Social Organization
• (e.g. kinship system, division of labor, etc.)
4.
Systems of Symbols
• (e.g. clothing & physical objects, gestures, writing, etc.)
The San of Southern Africa
• http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/places/regionsplaces/africa-tc/southafrica_sanpeople/ 3 min
• What was the Sun culture like before the 1960s?
• How did it change? What factors caused the change?
Anthropology: Example Questions
• Was a cultural change caused by a change in the society’s
leadership?
• What ideas or explanations can we use to describe what causes
cultures to change?
• Was it caused by a shift in the values and norms of the culture’s
membership?
• Is the technological change a factor in an observed cultural change?
Anthropology
• According to an anthropologist, social change happens because of…
• Interaction: cultural change comes from contact with other cultures
• Diffusion: distribution of ideas and information between cultures
• Acculturation: blending of certain beliefs and customs between cultures
after close interaction over time
• Incorporation – free borrowing of certain elements from another culture
• Direct change – one culture defeats or controls another culture
• Cultural evolution – evolution of the culture according to common patterns
Psychology and Change
• Focus of Studies:
• Behaviours and attitudes of individuals
• Major Focus:
• Link between people’s attitudes and behaviours – is
it necessary to change attitudes before behaviours
can change?
Psychology: Example Questions
• What must people do to successfully change their behaviours?
• What factors make behaviour-modification programs successful?
• Do most people need help changing behaviour, or can they be selfchangers?
Psychological Theories of Change
• Cognitive Consistency Theory
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• Behaviour Modification
Psychological Theories of Attitude Change
• Cognitive Consistency Theory:
• People desire consistency in their beliefs.
• Most people want to avoid attitudes that conflict with each other – makes
people happier
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
• People try to avoid conflicts between what people think and what they do
(i.e., if you smoke you may not smoke in front of a friend who is strongly
against it)
• Can motivate change in behaviour to match actions and beliefs
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korGK0yGIDo - 5 min
Cognitive Consistency and Dissonance…
Cognitive Dissonance/Consistency
• Festinger's (1957) Cognitive Dissonance Theory
suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our
attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid
disharmony (or dissonance).
• Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving
conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This
produces a feeling of discomfort leading to a
MODIFICATION in one of the attitudes, beliefs or
behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore
balance – known as Cognitive Consistency.
• For example, suppose you smoke, but you also believe that
smoking causes lung cancer. You are experiencing dissonance
because what you do (behaviour – smoking) conflicts with what
you think (attitude – causing cancer).
• You may avoid smoking in front of family because they oppose
smoking. If a friend who is a smoker gets lung cancer, your
dissonance will increase. Your inner conflict between your attitude
and behaviour will mount – can cause anxiety, depression etc...
• Psychologists suggest that there are only two things that can be
done to lower dissonance. One is that you change your behaviour
so it is consistent with your attitude (you stop smoking), and the
other is that you reinforce your attitude (you tell yourself cancer
will never happen to you).
Behaviour Modification Theory
• Behaviour Modification – successful change happens in stages:
Last stage:
Termination
– only 20%
reach this
stage.
Stages
1. Pre-contemplation
• Denial (“I don’t have a problem”)
• Refusal (“I like myself the way I am”)
2. Contemplation
• Questioning (“Do you think I should do something about the problem?”)
3. Preparation
• Investigation (“What is my problem doing to my health? How does my problem
affect those who love me?”)
Stages of behaviour modification
4. Action
• Commitment (“ I’ve got to keep doing this or I’ll never change”)
5. Maintenance
• Begins about six months after Action stage begins
• Transition (“I must find alternative ways to deal with my problems. I must
avoid people who are going to drag me back into my old habits.”)
6. Termination
• Only about 20% of changers reach this stage
• Completion (“I don’t have to work at this any more. I just don’t want to go
back to my old ways.”)
• High risk for relapse
Reinforcement and Punishment
Reinforcement
Consequences increase the probability of the behavior – want the
positive behaviour to continue
1.
2.
3.
4.
Tangibles: food, drink
Favorite activities: visiting family, watching TV, dancing, listening to
music, singing
Attention: positive/negative verbals, physical contact
Social reinforcers: praise, positive feedback
Punishment
Consequences decrease the probability of the behavior – want to
discourage negative behaviour
1.
2.
3.
Verbal reprimand
Time out
Removing a privilege
Foundational Psychologists
• Conditioning – behavioral process whereby a response becomes
more frequent or more predictable in a given environment as a
result of reinforcement - typically being a stimulus or reward for a
desired response
• Classical Conditioning - is a form of learning in which the
conditioned stimulus, comes to signal the occurrence of a second
stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoLxEN54ho 3 min
• Pavlov’s Bar (fun): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEDxRCa_wfc
• Operant Conditioning - is a type of learning in which an individual's
behavior is modified by its consequences.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUwCgFSb6Nk 7 min
• Punishment – reward program
Skinner in Action
• Skinner’s Experiment – Pigeon Conditioning
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA 4 min
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGazyH6fQQ4 40
sec
• Skinner today
• Rick Mercer: Behaviour Modification – YouTube 2 min
Behaviour Change
• Three Myth of behaviour change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5d8GW6GdR0 18 min