Social ChangeQuestions & Theories In Social Science

What is Social Change? Broad definition: Social change refers to changes in the way a

society is organized, and in the beliefs and practices of the people who live in it

Narrower definition: A change in the social structure and the institutions of society

You can expect enormous political, economic, and social changes to take place in Canada during your lifetime.

Questions About Social ChangeIn groups, discuss the following:

Which area of Canadian life have changed the most since you were a kid?What factors have caused these changes?Have the changes been positive or negative?Will the acceptance of alternative lifestyles such as common-law marriage increase or decline?

Questions About Social ChangeThink of the changes that will take place by the time you are 85 years old.

In groups, discuss the following:

What areas of life will change more rapidly than others?Will the changes be, on the whole, beneficial or detrimental?How will you be affected as an individual?

Predictions

You can expect enormous political, economic and social changes to happen in your lifetime.

Some changes can be predicted with reasonable certainty.The global population is expected to reach between 7.5 and 10.5 billion by 2050Canada’s population is over 35 million. By 2031 predicted to be 43 million.About one-third of Canada's population — up to 14.4 million people — will be a visible minority by 2031, Statistics Canada projects.

Predictions Continued

It is difficult, however, to predict the nature of social changes that will accompany these changes.

Will the influence of organized religions grow or diminish?Will the acceptance of gay marriage increase or decline?

The Social Science & Social Change Each of the social sciences look at social change differently Instead of trying to predict the future, social scientists try to

understand the nature of social change and what forces drive it.

Very little change occurs as a result of peoples conscious efforts. Most change occurs almost naturally, as a result of a multitude of factors operating within society.

This makes the study of social change a great challenge.

How Psychologists Look at Social Change:

Investigate social problems as they affect the individual.Focus on peoples’ behaviours and attitudes and work to change both.

Psychologists Ask… What must people do to change their behaviours?

What does a successful behaviour modification program look like? (i.e. what kinds of reinforcements, how often, working in teams or alone?)

Psychologists Also Ask… Do people need help or can they change on their own? What factors make behaviour modification programs

successful. How effectively do the media mould and change our

attitudes? What personal qualities make it easy or difficult to persuade

an individual to change?

Research suggests: Peoples’ attitudes are linked to their behaviours. And, this is often the key to change. If you can change the attitude you can change the behaviours.

Psychology and Social Change:

•When it comes to psychology and social change we are essentially looking at changes that can occur to an individual’s attitudes(what they think), beliefs and behaviours (what they do) and the effect of these changes on the rest of society.

Changing our Minds?

Cognitive Consistency- want to avoid attitudes the conflict with each other.-Ones desire to regain cognitive consistency forces us to change one of the two conflicting attitudes.Cognitive Dissonance Theory- What you do conflicts with what you think- either change behaviour- or STOP what your doing ie. Smoking

Aesop’s Fable… A Case Study: The Fox and the Grapes…

One hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard until he came to a bunch of grapes just ripening on a vine…. “Just the things to quench my thirst,” said he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a one, two, three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: “I am sure they are sour.”

Bart’s fable… a Case Study: The teen and the house party

A teenager wants to got to a party that they anticipate will be amazing. The teen is not allowed to go out and must stay home. The teen becomes sad. After a while the teen decides the party “wouldn’t have been that good anyway” and feels better.

Cognitive Dissonance The teen is reducing the conflict between her thoughts and

her actions, a.k.a. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.

She wants to go the party but can’t.

To feel better, she changes her mind about how good the party will be.

She no longer cares about missing out.

Cognitive Dissonance The fox is reducing the conflict between his thoughts and his

actions, a.k.a. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.

He wants the grapes but can’t have them.

So to feel better, he changes his mind about how good the grapes are.

He then leaves them alone.

Cognitive Dissonance “When we choose to do something that conflicts with our

prior feelings, values or beliefs, we are in a state of cognitive dissonance.” - Dr. Leon Festinger

Stated differently, cognitive dissonance is a conflict between what we feel and what we do.

Cognitive Dissonance• Most of us want cognitive consistency in our beliefs. • We want to avoid attitudes that conflict with each other.• What makes us change our attitudes is the discomfort we

experience when two attitudes conflict• Our desire to regain cognitive consistency forces us to change

one of the two conflicting attitudes.

A UFO Cult

Leon Festinger's 1956 book, When Prophecy Fails

He studied a cult which believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood, caused by a UFOHe was interested to see what would happen to its members (esp. the really committed ones who had given up their homes and jobs to work for the cult) when the flood did not happen.

While fringe members were more inclined to recognize that they had made fools of themselves, committed members were more likely to re-interpret the evidence to show that they were right all along (the earth was not destroyed because of the faithfulness of the cult members).

Another Example: Smoking You smoke, but also believe that smoking causes cancer and other

serious diseases. Dissonance: What you do conflicts with what you are thinking. In your desire to regain consistency, you will probably try to avoid

facing the conflict. You may avoid smoking in front of a friend who is strongly opposed to

smoking (thereby avoiding a lecture) You may avoid reading newspaper articles about the latest studies on

smoking and health (thereby avoiding thinking about the ways that smoking can kill you)

Another Example: Smoking• However, if a relative who is a smoker gets lung cancer, your

dissonance will unavoidably increase.

• Ultimately, the only way you can effectively reduce the dissonance you feel is to do one of two things:

a. You can change your behaviour to make it consistent with your attitudes and stop smoking .

b. Or you can reinforce your attitudes. I.e. You can tell yourself it won’t happen to you. “Grandma was a heavy smoker

and lived to be 93.”

Exercise Working in groups, come up with your own example of

cognitive dissonance.

Psychological Theories About Social Change:

As we know psychology is divided into two broad fields;1.Experimental- deals with measuring and explaining human behaviour2.Clinical- focus on treatment of problem human behavioursThe main focus of psychological investigation is on how humans change their attitudes and behaviours.

Treating Mental Disorders:

Psychologist classify mental disorders into three categories;1.neuroses- suffers experience high levels of anxiety or tension in managing their daily lives. Ie. Phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorders.2.Psychosis- patient has lost touch with the real world, may suffer delusions or hallucinations, and needs treatment before he/she can live a life with any degree of normality. I.e.. Paranoia- irrational thoughts, schizophrenia- feelings of distress and social isolation3.Anti-social personality disorder- habitual pattern of rule-breaking and harming others. I.e.. Pathological lying, absence of empathy towards others, deliberately causing them pain, lack of feelings of guilt for the damage caused. Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka

Videos & Hall of Fame:Sigmund Freud-

• The founder of psychoanalytic theory • He believed our early childhood experiences, usually involving our relationships with

parents and family, are stored in our unconscious mind, particularly anything that is unresolved

• While we are normally unaware of these memories, they can have a powerful influence on the way we function

• “A man who did enough cocaine to kill a small horse?” (Good Will Hunting ,1997 Learning Theorists-Ivan Pavlov- Classical Conditioning • Pavlov’s experiments with dogs showed that is was possible to get a dog to associate

the sound of a bell with the imminent arrival of food • At the sound of a bell, the dog would salivate in anticipation • Essentially, when you pair one stimulus with another you can condition someone to

learn to associate one stimulus with another B.F Skinner- Operant Conditioning

• Skinner proved that pigeons could be trained to peck at a particular coloured disk to get food rewards

• His experiments with rats found that they can be trained to press a lever when rewarded with food

• He believed that if the subject is correctly rewarded it will give the appropriate response (positive reinforcement results in encouraging behaviour)

• Operant Conditioning is based on some type of operation or behaviour which is then rewarded ~ Big Bang Clip

Videos & Hall of Fame:Albert Bandura: Modelling or Observational learning • Bandura concluded that learning is largely

a modeling experience or learning through social interaction – also includes motivation of rewards

• When humans observe behaviour – either acceptable or unacceptable – they are more likely to practice it

• Question - What does this mean to us? Bandura Clip-bobo doll experiment

Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs• Argued that you have to satisfy the need

at one level of hierarchy, rather than becoming satisfied overall, we tend to move on and try to satisfy the need at the next level.

Sociologists and Social Change:The Sociological Questions:

• While psychologist look at why and how individuals change their attitudes and behaviours, sociologist tend to focus on the massive shifts in the behaviours and attitudes of groups and whole societies.

• See change as an inevitable process• Major issues for sociologist is whether social change is

patterned, and predictable, or arbitrary and irregular.

The Sociological Questions:

1. How does social change come about?Developed 3 main ways of explaining social change;1. From Decay- caused by decline or degeneration-

believed all societies began in an ideal state.2. From cycles of growth and decay- don’t believe that

societies head inevitable toward destruction, but instead go through cycles of growth and decay

3. From Progress- social change occurred as a result of continuous progress.

4 Aspects of Social Change

Sociologists look at 4 aspects of social change:

1. Direction of Change2. Rate of Change3. Sources4. Controllability

4 Aspects of Social Change…

1. Direction of change: Is it a positive or negative change and who says so? I.E. Are Canadian emission laws sufficient to protect

the environment? If you as the CEO of a major oil and gas company and a member of Greenpeace Canada you will get different answers.

2. Rate of change: Is the degree of change slow, moderate, or fast? Is it a radical change over a short period or slow

change that will continue for decades? What factors are affecting that rate?

4 Aspects of Social Change…3. Sources:

What factors are behind the influences of change in a society?

Are they exogenous (coming from another society) or endogenous (coming from within society itself) influences?

3. Controllability: Many sociologists are interested in the degree to

which social change can be controlled or engineered.

How successfully can be eliminate racism, spousal abuse, or teenage smoking in Canada?

Sociological Theories About Social Change:• Major influence of structural functionalist- focus more on social structures

than social change.• Early 20th C believed that where change did occur, it was the result of

tension & adaptation. • Felt that when one part of the social system changes, tension arises

between that part and the rest- it cannot continue and therefore member's of society will seek to reduce or eliminate the tension by adapting other aspects of society- therefore equilibrium is restored.

• Accumulation- change as a process of accumulation through which the growth of human knowledge from generation to generation allows society to develop new ways of doing things.

For Example- TV- family communication patterns- cost- availability- channels…

Anthropologists

Study social change from a cultural perspective – cultural change. Anthropologists regard cultures as constantly changing organisms. Change is normally gradual. Cultures do not normally change

suddenly and completely. Cultural changes are generally broad and affect all members of a

culture. I.e. Did your parents go to daycare when they were children? Did

you? What caused these changes?

Anthropologists Ask:

Was a cultural change caused by a change in society’s leadership?

Was it caused by a shift in the values and norms of the culture’s members?

Is technological change a factor in an observed cultural change?

Have changes to the environment resulted in changes to the culture?

3 Sources of Social Change: Invention: New products, ideas, social patterns that affect the

way we live Example: The invention of the portable stereo headset in the

1980s changed the way we listen to music.

Discovery: Finding something that was previously unknown to a culture. Example: Finding intelligent life on a distant planet might change

the way humans think about themselves.

Diffusion: Spreading ideas, methods and tools from one culture to another Example: The importation of herbal remedies and treatments

such as acupuncture has changed the way in which some view treatment of illnesses.

Social change caused by invention, discovery or diffusion?

Come up with your own examples of social change cause by: Invention (new products, ideas, social patterns that affect the

way we live) Discovery (finding something that was previously unknown to a

culture) Diffusion (spreading ideas, methods and tools from one culture

to another)

Four Parts of Culture in Understanding Cultural/Social Change:

1. Physical Environment- environmental influences- winter2. Level of technology- availability- receptive a culture will

be to change- multi-lane highways- rail transit3. Social Organization- how is the culture organized? What

is its kinship system? How is labour divided and allocated? Are social rules flexible or tightly regulated?- chewing gum- Singapore

4. Systems of Symbols- identifying a person as a member of a particular culture- hair, gestures, dance trends

Anthropological Theories About Social Change:Theories of cultural ChangeExample- Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert- pg. 48-49•Changes that were forced on the San came from interaction, or contact with other cultures. •Although change can develop within the culture- anthropologist believe that most far-reaching changes come from contact with other cultures.•Most do not want to accept changes but are forced to, and other cultures adapt what they regard as beneficial changes from other cultures.

Theories of Cultural Change Cont…

Adaptation- can take place in a number of ways, although the results can be similar no matter what pattern of adaptation is followed.1.Diffusion- when one culture borrows cultural symbols from another. i. smoking tobacco- Aboriginal practice- Europeans embraced OR Horses- French explores and traders brought across the Atlantic Ocean in mid17th C- aboriginals welcomed. 2.Acculturation- results from prolonged contact between two cultures, during which time they interchange symbols, beliefs, and customs- occurs in a few ways

1. Occurs in 1 of 2 ways- People freely borrow selected elements from the culture of another = incorporation

2. Direct Change- one culture defeats or controls another and forces it to change aspects of its culture or even change the entire culture- Residential Schools

3. Cultural Evolution- cultures evolving according to common patterns- hunter-gather cultures to industrialized states in predictable stages.

Video & Hall of Fame:“THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY”

Hall of Fame:•Leaky Family- Mary and Louis:

• Louis and Mary Leakey, two of the most famous fossil hunters of the twentieth century, are known for their many discoveries relating to human evolution.

• Their finds at Olduvai Gorge, a site in north western Tanzania, when added to the work of others, convinced most paleoanthropologists that humans originally evolved in Africa.

•Franz Boas:• Originally from Germany, Boas travelled to Canada in the late 1800s to study the indigenous people

here • He is famous for challenging the idea of racial differences • He introduced the idea of not judging cultures as less than our own – which is anti ethnocentrism • Instead believed all cultures are relative to their own history – cultural relativism

•Dian Fossey:• Dian Fossey believed that in order to study gorillas effectively she had to immerse herself with them

in an effort to get them to accept her presence • She was an advocate for the gorillas who were being killed by poachers for their heads and hands.

She was murdered in her cabin at Karisoke on December 26, 1985. Her death is a mystery yet unsolved.~

• Youtube- Dian Fossey, Digit's death•Jane Goodall:

• Studied chimpanzees and also lived with them for over 45 years off and on in the wild • She learned that chimpanzee culture is similar to humans in many ways

ActivityWith a partner or small group:

A.Discuss one social change you would welcome. How could this social change be engineered?

B.Discuss one possible social change that frightens/bothers you. Comment on how this change can be stopped and identify its root causes.

Current Social Issues Daily Assignment• Hand-out- starting tomorrow- bring your newspaper-

presentations will take place daily- will be the first 30-45 minutes of each class.