Social change

Question 1

Social change

Answer 1

-Social change is when the views held by a minority group challenges the majority’s view and are eventually accepted by the majority
-Then, whole societies (not just individuals) adopt a new set of attitudes, beliefs or behaviours

Question 2

How does minority influence affect social change

Answer 2

-Minority groups are more likely to influence social change when they show consistent, commitment and flexibility
-This can then cause the minority to become the majority via the snowball effect

Question 3

Obedience affecting social change (governments creating new laws)

Answer 3

-Obedience: governments are a minority group that can enact social change by creating laws
-The creation of new laws causes societies to change to avoid consequences
-For example changed laws on smoking in planes

Question 4

Conformity affecting social change

Answer 4

-Normative social influence can influence change if a behaviour becomes a norm in a minority group e.g fitness in teens; not taking part in this behaviour could lead to rejection, therefore the behaviour spreads to the wider population
Informational social influence: The minority group can provide information to the majority such as the effects of climate change; the majority group/wider population changes their behaviour as they accept this information as fact

Question 5

Positive evaluation for social change (example of LGBTQ+ movement causing social change through consistency and flexibility)

Answer 5

-The LGBTQ+ movement has used a combination of consistency (in their core message of equality and rights) and flexibility to enact social change
-For example, they successfully campaigned for civil partnerships (flexibility) which then led to the full legalisation of same-sex marriages

Question 6

Negative evaluation for research methods on social change (cannot establish a cause and effect relationship)

Answer 6

-Social change takes place over a long period of time and deals with sensitive topics, therefore it cannot be investigated in a highly controlled lab setting, and a cause-and-effect relationship cannot be established
-Instead; researchers have to rely on natural experiments, case studies and correlational studies to see the effect of social change