SOCIAL CHANGE AND REAL LIFE EXAMPLES

What is social change? A change in the social structure/behaviour, beliefs and attitudes in society which may occur through a majority or minority of individuals

How do these social changes occur? These social changes can occur through a number of factors, a few highlighted important ones would be: Attention Consistency Persistency Augmentation

ATTENTION By attracting attention to the minority group draws attention to the views they are addressing, by doing things such as: Protests Marches Strikes etc

CONSISTENCY AND PERSISTENCY Minority arguments can easily be dismissed and rejected, however, if the minority is:  Consistent (doing the same thing again and again)  Persistent (doing it to the same standard each time they repeat the process) Their position and points raised are taken more seriously

AUGMENTATION Minorities frequently suffer for their views at the hands of the majority, (even if it’s unintentional). Their position may be reinforced because they are willing to make personal sacrifices to bring about social change

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES INDIVIDUAL: ROSA PARKS ACTION: First black woman to refuse to give up her seat in the 1950’s which led to her being arrested and taken away by the police CONSEQUENCE: Her action led to the boycott of the Montgomery transit authority, in effect, fought for equal rights between black and white people

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES INDIVIDUAL: DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. ACTION: Led the boycott of the Montgomery transit authority CONSEQUENCE: One of the most widespread examples of social change ever experienced in the USA

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES GROUP: THE ROSENSTRASSE PROTEST ACTION: A crowd of 200 women, mostly non-Jewish German women, married to Jewish men gathered outside Rosenstrasse 2-4, and began chanting, after a couple of months, the crowd of 200 women had grew to 1000 people (both men and women) CONSEQUENCE: Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels ordered the release of the intermarried Jews held in the Rosenstrasse

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES INDIVIDUAL: MOHANDAS GANDHI ACTION: Peaceful, non-violent protest to abolish the salt-tax CONSEQUENCE: Abolished the salt tax

EXAM QUESTIONS Q1) Explain how social influence research helps us understand social change. (5 marks)

Q1. ANSWER Research into minority influence such as Moscovici et al helps us identify and highlight the importance of certain factors; i.e. consistency and persistency into explain how minorities bring about social change. Moscovici et al conducted an experiment in which they were researching the effect of minority influence on conformity levels, however, deceived participants and told them the research was on a colour perception test. 172 individuals participated and were asked the colour of 36 slides; all slides were blue but differed in terms of brightness. All these participants were split into groups of six; however, two of the six participants were in fact confederates. There were two conditions under which participants were tested; consistent condition (in which the confederates called all slides green) and the inconsistent condition (in which confederates called 24 slides green and the remaining 12 blue). Participants in the consistent condition yielded to the minority on 8.4% of trials 32% participants said a slide was green at least once. However, participants in the inconsistent condition only yielded on 1.3% of the trials. Overall, Moscovici et al, alongside other psychologists help us identify and highlight the importance of consistency and persistency in assisting minorities bring about social change.

EXAM QUESTIONS Q2) Explain the role of minority influence in social change. (4 marks)

Q2. ANSWER Minorities can bring about social change over a prolonged period of time considering they stay consistent and persistent in what they want; i.e. the Suffragettes were a group of women who wanted to see a social change in which women would have the right to vote. They were successful in doing so, as they brought attention to themselves via protesting, marching etc, then kept this consistent through doing the same actions over and over again, and persistent throughout as they did it to the same standard each time. Overall, they brought about social change by being consistent and persistent over a period of time

EXAM QUESTIONS Q4) Outline and evaluate the role of minority influence in social change. (12 marks)

Q4. ANSWER ASK MISS TO MARK YOUR ESSAY FOR A BETTER FEEL OF THE MARK YOU WOULD GET