Download QUESTIONS ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE

WHAT SORTS OF QUESTIONS COULD YOU ASK ABOUT
CHANGES IN CANADIAN SOCIETY?
 Consider these:
 Which area of Canadian life has changed
the most?
 What factors caused these changes?

Have the changes, on the whole, been
beneficial
or detrimental?
IN GROUPS OF THREE DISCUSS THE CHANGES
THAT WILL TAKE PLACE BY THE TIME YOU ARE 80
YEARS OLD.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
Anthropologist regard culture as constantly changing
organism (an organism is a whole with interdependent
parts).
The change processes is normally gradual, and
cultures do not change suddenly and completely.
Except when they are destroyed by another culture.
WITH THIS FRAME OF QUESTIONS IN MIND
ANTHROPOLOGISTS MAY ASK THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS:
1) What are the known basic mechanisms of
social change?
2) What ideas or explanations can we use to
describe what causes cultures to change?
3) How adequate are these ideas or
explanations when we apply them to the
modern world?
4) What are the implications for
anthropologists? Are the findings for one
period valid in another?
ANTHROPOLIGISTS TEND TO SEE CULTURAL CHANGE AS
BEING CAUSED BY A LIMITED NUMBER OF FACTORS:
 Change in societies leadership
Shift in values and norms
Technological change
Changes to the environment
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
 Psychologists focus on people’s behaviour in
their investigation of social change.
 For example, they may consider the social problems
of drug use or drinking and driving.
 Psychologists would ask the following
questions:
1)
2)
3)
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 self-changers?
HOW AND WHY DO WE CHANGE OUR MINDS?
 Social psychologists have discovered that most
individuals desire cognitive consistency.

The desire to avoid attitudes that conflict
with each other, which generally results in
the ability to live more satisfying lives.
 We tend to change our attitudes when we
experience discomfort when two attitudes lead to
conflict.
 Hence, in order to regain cognitive consistency
we are forced to change one of the two conflicting
attitudes.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY:
 The theory that people try to avoid conflicts
between what they think and what they do.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Suppose you smoke, but you also
believe that smoking causes cancer and other serious
diseases.
 You are experiencing dissonance (conflict).
 In order to regain cognitive consistency you will
try to avoid facing
the conflict.
SOCIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
 Sociologists focus on the massive shifts in the behaviours
and attitudes of groups and society as a whole.
 See change as inevitable process. Major issue, is social
change patterned and predictable, or arbitrary and irregular.
 The major question for sociologists is, how does social
change come about?
EARLY APPROACHES:
 In its early development as a discipline, Sociology
developed three main ways of explaining social
change.
1) From decay: caused by decline or degradation. All
societies began in an ideal state. As society became
more materialistic, and less spiritual they declined.
2) From cycles of growth and decay: believed that
societies go through cycles of growth and decay.
3) From progress: social change occurs as a result of
the phenomenon of continuous progress. Each new
society builds on the experiences of its predecessors,
as a result social institutions change.
ANALYZING PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOUR
 Sociologists believe that human behaviour is generally
patterned and potentially predictable.
 People tend to behave according to societal norms
(customary types of behaviour).
 Therefore, the extent that society will accept social change
should also be predictable.
Sociologists tend to look at one or more of
four aspects of social change:
1) Direction of change: Is it positive or negative,
and who says so? Sociologists consider it
vital to consider whose opinions are being
sought in the measurement of change.
2) Rate of Change: Is the degree of change
slow, moderate, or fast? What factors are
affecting the rate? After identifying the
forces that facilitate and oppose change,
sociologists try to estimate which side has
the greater influence both now and in the
future.
3) Sources: What factors are behind the
influences of change in society? Are they
exogenous influences, coming from another
society, or endogenous influences, coming
from within society. For ex., population,
technological innovation, condition of
environment. All these influence the norms
and values of a society. Changes to any of
these will result in social change.
4) Controlability: Many sociologists are
interested in the degree to which social
change can be controlled or engineered. For
ex., to what degree is it possible to engineer
or restrict social change in a diverse society
of Canada at large?
PAUSE AND REFLECT QUESTIONS
1) How do Anthropologists regard cultures? What
causes cultures to change?
2) What do Psychologists studying change concentrate
on? How can change be obtained?
3) What is the focus of sociologists studying social
change?
4) Create a comparison organizer, and list and compare
the questions asked by experts from the three
disciplines.