Social Change: Social influence process

Question 1

Define social change?

Answer 1

• A society develops over time to replace beliefs, attitudes & behaviour with new norms & expectations
• These new attitudes become the societal norm

Question 2

What are the 5 social processes that can trigger social change?

What are previous methods that have been used to bring about social change?

Answer 2

1. Consistency
2. Commitment
3. Flexibility
4. Snowball effect/Social crypto-amnesia
5. Conformity

• Education, persuasion, brute force/vigilantism

Question 3

Define the snowball effect?

Answer 3

• A process that starts from a small/insignificant point & over time builds support upon itself

Question 4

How were the suffragette’s consistent?

Answer 4

• Consistent in their opinion through slogan ‘Votes for women’
• Resisted social pressure & abuse continuously

Question 5

How were the suffragette’s committed?

Answer 5

• Suffragette’s died through their cause such as Emily Davison at Epsom racecourse by jumping in front of the King’s horse
• Chained themselves to parliament/went on hunger strike

Question 6

How were the suffragette’s flexible?

Answer 6

• Stopped their demonstrations during the WW1 & supported the government in the war
• Initially had to accept the vote for women 30+

Question 7

How did the snowball effect relate to the suffragette’s?

Answer 7

• Through their militancy people started to adopt their messages

Question 8

How did conformity relate to the suffragette’s?

Answer 8

• Men in positions of power began to realise & conform to the suffragette’s messaging, by doing this others too would conform to this creating social change

Question 9

AO3 Social change processes
Research support?
Moscovici

Answer 9

P - Research support for social change processes
E - Moscovici study supports the idea of how social change happens
- The consistency condition had a higher percentage of conformity (8.4%) vs inconsistent condition (1.3%)
E - Implies consistency from minority groups is an important part of a minority group moving to the majority group
L - Therefore explains how minority groups bring about change in the real world

Question 10

AO3 Social change processes
Methodological issues?

Answer 10

P - Methodological issues with research
E - Pt’s in lab experiments are rarely ‘real’ minority groups instead are usually students who do not know each other & are volunteers
E - In addition they are involved in an artificial task & are different from how a legit minority group operates
L - Suggests concepts arising from research may not have full explanatory power as research lacks ecological validity

Question 11

AO3 Social change processes
Holistic?

Answer 11

P - Strength is that social change process is holistic
E - Theory takes into account a number of factors, like how consistent the minority has to be in order to influence the majority
E - e.g. Can be evidenced from modern society such as BLM/LGBT rights/protests
L - Implies social change processes are a result/combination of powerful factors that drive minorities to bring about social change

Question 12

AO3 Social change processes
Practical applications?

Answer 12

P - One strength of social change processes is the practical applications
E - For example Nelson Mandela’s struggle for the end of apartheid in South Africa resulted in his imprisonment Robin Island for his actions & then later became President of South Africa
E - He did this through using social changes such as commitment in order to create social change
L - This means the explanation has been useful to society as it encourages people to use social change processes in order to create long lasting societal change in causes they’re passionate about