Social Change

Here is the work from the lesson when I was ill last term, which includes the test questions which I was giving back yesterday - some of you need to do these still, others need to hand me their answers.


The final part of the Social Psychology topic is looking at how psychological research can explain changes in society - social change. This is basically applying lessons from the study of minority influence to real-life changes, where a minority view has gradually become accepted by the majority.

Examples of social change we briefly discussed at the end of today's lesson include:

• The civil rights movement (rights and respect for black people, particularly in America).
• Gay pride and changing attitudes to homosexuality in Western countries.
• The paralymics and changing attitudes to disability.
• Votes for women and women's rights in general.

Exam questions in the past have asked candidates to apply lessons from social psychology to the change in attitudes to recycling and smoking in this country.

The key ideas to use are:

• Minorities have been shown to be effective in converting a majority (that is, getting them to internalise the minority's views) when they are consistent in their message (as shown by Moscovici).
• It can also help for the minority to show some flexibility / logic, as in Nemeth's version of the Moscovici 'calling a blue slide green' study in which the minority said that the brighter slides were green but the dimmer ones were blue - this caused more influence than the consistent minority.
• Clark's '12 Angry Men' study showed that minorities cause change in the attitudes of majorities when they have persuasive arguments and evidence to back these up.
• He also showed that there is a 'snowball' effect - the influence of the minority increases as members of the majority start to 'switch sides'.
• Additionally, when the minority has grown to become the majority, people who haven't yet switched sides may start to comply with the new majority view even if they don't agree (e.g. people stop being openly racist and homophobic even if they are privately, because the majority now considers these views unacceptable) - their behaviour changes due to normative influence rather than informational influence.
• Finally, if the government passes a new law requiring people to adopt the behaviour that was originally the minority's then obedience to authority can be used to explain further change in behaviour, e.g. people recycle and don't smoke in public because the law enforces these.

Here is a presentation on this.

Have a go at these exam questions for next lesson:

June 2010 – Q5

For many years, smoking in public places such as trains, pubs and restaurants was

quite acceptable. People could smoke wherever they wanted and non-smokers had to

put up with smoky atmospheres. However, in 2007, the Government finally introduced

a law banning smoking in public places and those who smoke are limited in where they

can smoke.

Using your knowledge of the psychology of social change, explain how this social

change has occurred. (4 marks)

January 2009 – Q10

What are the implications for social change of research into social influence? (6 marks)