L9 - social change:
Social change occurs when whole societies adopt a new attitude, belief and ways of doing
things - e.g accepting earth orbits the sun , women’s suffragette
● occurs usually due to minority influence
● Minority usually have internal locus of control - because resist pressure to conform/ obey
to societal norms and values
1. drawing attention = bring light around a particular issue through social proof e.g. in 1950s
America - black and white people were segregated where there was schools exclusive for white
= led to civil right marches = drawing attention to situation by providing social proof
2. consistency = many marches and many people were taking part - even though they were a
minority of American population - the civil rights activists displayed consistency of their message
3. deeper processing = attention meant that many people who accepted the status quo began to
think of the unjustness
4. augmentation principle = people made sacrifices to show their dedication - many icdnects
where individuals risked their lives e.g. freedom riders got on buses to challenge the fact that
balck people had to sit separately as a result many of them were beaten
5. snowball effect = many people began to change their views and support the minority e.g.
MLK continued to press for changes until the government passed the US civil rights act which
prohibited discrimination - shows change in minority to majority support for civil rights
6. social cryptomnesia = where people have recognised / memory where change has occurred
but cannot remember how the change happened / events leading up to the change
Explanation using conformity :
- presences of a dissenting peer in asch's variation reduced levels of conformity = broke the
power of the majority by providing an alternative encouraging people to be less conformist = this
dissent in real life could lead to social change
- campaign often use normative social influence to encourage to behave like others and follow
in their footstep - used to draw attention to what other people are doing and encourages an
individual to behave in same way
Explanations using obedience:
- milgram introduced disobedient confederate - rate of obedience dropped in ppts =
demonstrates obedient / disobedient behaviours likely to have an impact on social change
Social change occurs when whole societies adopt a new attitude, belief and ways of doing
things - e.g accepting earth orbits the sun , women’s suffragette
● occurs usually due to minority influence
● Minority usually have internal locus of control - because resist pressure to conform/ obey
to societal norms and values
1. drawing attention = bring light around a particular issue through social proof e.g. in 1950s
America - black and white people were segregated where there was schools exclusive for white
= led to civil right marches = drawing attention to situation by providing social proof
2. consistency = many marches and many people were taking part - even though they were a
minority of American population - the civil rights activists displayed consistency of their message
3. deeper processing = attention meant that many people who accepted the status quo began to
think of the unjustness
4. augmentation principle = people made sacrifices to show their dedication - many icdnects
where individuals risked their lives e.g. freedom riders got on buses to challenge the fact that
balck people had to sit separately as a result many of them were beaten
5. snowball effect = many people began to change their views and support the minority e.g.
MLK continued to press for changes until the government passed the US civil rights act which
prohibited discrimination - shows change in minority to majority support for civil rights
6. social cryptomnesia = where people have recognised / memory where change has occurred
but cannot remember how the change happened / events leading up to the change
Explanation using conformity :
- presences of a dissenting peer in asch's variation reduced levels of conformity = broke the
power of the majority by providing an alternative encouraging people to be less conformist = this
dissent in real life could lead to social change
- campaign often use normative social influence to encourage to behave like others and follow
in their footstep - used to draw attention to what other people are doing and encourages an
individual to behave in same way
Explanations using obedience:
- milgram introduced disobedient confederate - rate of obedience dropped in ppts =
demonstrates obedient / disobedient behaviours likely to have an impact on social change
