Social ChangeMrs. Ferguson

Introduction:

As you grow older and look around, you notice that things aren’t the way they were when you were a youngster.

Some changes are hard to define. Life probably seems more complicated. But is it really? How is it different? What social changes resulted from the

September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack on America?

Social Change?

Refers to changes in the way society is organized, and in the beliefs and practices of the people who live in it

“change in the social structure and the institutions of society.”

You can expect enormous political, economic, and social changes to take place in Canada during your lifetime.

What Questions do you ask yourself to find out more about Changes in Canadian Society?

What area of Canadian life has changed the most?

What factors caused these changes? Have the changes, on the whole, been

beneficial or detrimental? Will the acceptance of alternative

lifestyles such as common-law marriage increase or decline?

WHAT ELSE?

Social Change:

Instead of attempting to predict the future, social scientists try to understand the nature of social change and what forces drive it.

Very little change occurs as a result of peoples conscious efforts. Most change occurs almost naturally, as a result of a multitude of factors operating within society.

This makes the study of social change a great challenge.

Anthropology and Social Change:

Anthropologist regard cultures, the focus of their studies, as constantly changing organisms.

Change is a process that is normally gradual, and cultures normally do not change suddenly unless they have been destroyed.

Anthropology Questions about Social Change: Was a cultural change caused by a

change in the society’s leadership? Have changes in the environment

resulted in changes to the culture? How adequate are these ideas or

explanations when we apply them to the modern world?

Anthropology and Social Change:

3 major sources of cultural changes:1. Invention- new products, ideas, and

social patterns that affect the way people live

2. Discovery- finding something that was previously unknown to the culture

3. Diffusion- spreading of ideas, methods, and tools from one culture to another. Ie. Herbal remedies- acupuncture from Asia into Canada.

Four Parts of Culture in Understanding Cultural/Social Change:

1. Physical Environment- environmental influences- winter

2. Level of technology- availability- receptive a culture will be to change- multi-lane highways- rail transit

3. Social Organization- how is the culture organized? What is its kinship system? How is labour divided and allocated? Are social rules flexible or tightly regulated?- chewing gum- Singapore

4. Systems of Symbols- identifying a person as a member of a particular culture- hair, gestures, dance trends

Anthropological Theories About Social Change:

Theories of cultural ChangeExample- Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert- pg. 48-49 Changes that were forced on the San came from

interaction, or contact with other cultures. Although change can develop within the culture-

anthropologist believe that most far-reaching changes come from contact with other cultures.

Most do not want to accept changes but are forced to, and other cultures adapt what they regard as beneficial changes from other cultures.

Theories of Cultural Change Cont…Adaptation- can take place in a number of ways, although the results can be similar no matter what pattern of adaptation is followed.1. Diffusion- when one culture borrows cultural symbols from

another. i. smoking tobacco- Aboriginal practice- Europeans embraced OR Horses- French explores and traders brought across the Atlantic Ocean in mid17th C- aboriginals welcomed.

2. Acculturation- results from prolonged contact between two cultures, during which time they interchange symbols, beliefs, and customs- occurs in a few ways

1. Occurs in 1 of 2 ways- People freely borrow selected elements from the culture of another = incorporation

2. Direct Change- one culture defeats or controls another and forces it to change aspects of its culture or even change the entire culture- Residential Schools

3. Cultural Evolution- cultures evolving according to common patterns- hunter-gather cultures to industrialized states in predictable stages.

Video & Hall of Fame:“THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY”

Hall of Fame: Leaky Family- Mary and Louis:

Louis and Mary Leakey, two of the most famous fossil hunters of the twentieth century, are known for their many discoveries relating to human evolution.

Their finds at Olduvai Gorge, a site in north western Tanzania, when added to the work of others, convinced most paleoanthropologists that humans originally evolved in Africa.

Franz Boas: Originally from Germany, Boas travelled to Canada in the late 1800s to study the indigenous

people here He is famous for challenging the idea of racial differences He introduced the idea of not judging cultures as less than our own – which is anti ethnocentrism Instead believed all cultures are relative to their own history – cultural relativism

Dian Fossey: Dian Fossey believed that in order to study gorillas effectively she had to immerse herself with

them in an effort to get them to accept her presence She was an advocate for the gorillas who were being killed by poachers for their heads and hands.

She was murdered in her cabin at Karisoke on December 26, 1985. Her death is a mystery yet unsolved.~

Youtube- Dian Fossey, Digit's death

1. Jane Goodall: Studied chimpanzees and also lived with them for over 45 years off and on in the wild She learned that chimpanzee culture is similar to humans in many ways

Psychological Questions & Social Change: While anthropologist focus on culture in their investigations

of social change, psychologists focus on people’s behaviour and attitudes.

Questions:1. What must people do to successfully change their behaviour?2. What factors make behaviour modification programs successful?3. Do most people need help changing behaviour, or can they be self-changed?4. How effectively do the media mould and change our attitudes?5. What personal qualities make it easy or difficult to persuade an individual to change?

Psychology and Social Change:

When it comes to psychology and social change we are essentially looking at changes that can occur to an individual’s attitudes(what they think), beliefs and behaviours (what they do) and the effect of these changes on the rest of society.

Changing our Minds?

Cognitive Consistency- want to avoid attitudes the conflict with each other.- Ones desire to regain cognitive

consistency forces us to change one of the two conflicting attitudes.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory- What you do conflicts with what you think- either change behaviour- or STOP what your doing ie. Smoking

Psychological Theories About Social Change:

As we know psychology is divided into two broad fields;1. Experimental- deals with measuring

and explaining human behaviour2. Clinical- focus on treatment of problem

human behavioursThe main focus of psychological investigation is on how humans change their attitudes and behaviours.

Treating Mental Disorders:Psychologist classify mental disorders into three categories;1. neuroses- suffers experience high levels of anxiety or

tension in managing their daily lives. Ie. Phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorders.

2. Psychosis- patient has lost touch with the real world, may suffer delusions or hallucinations, and needs treatment before he/she can live a life with any degree of normality. I.e.. Paranoia- irrational thoughts, schizophrenia- feelings of distress and social isolation

3. Anti-social personality disorder- habitual pattern of rule-breaking and harming others. I.e.. Pathological lying, absence of empathy towards others, deliberately causing them pain, lack of feelings of guilt for the damage caused. Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka

Videos & Hall of Fame:Sigmund Freud-

The founder of psychoanalytic theory He believed our early childhood experiences, usually involving our relationships

with parents and family, are stored in our unconscious mind, particularly anything that is unresolved

While we are normally unaware of these memories, they can have a powerful influence on the way we function

“A man who did enough cocaine to kill a small horse?” (Good Will Hunting ,1997 Learning Theorists-Ivan Pavlov- Classical Conditioning Pavlov’s experiments with dogs showed that is was possible to get a dog to

associate the sound of a bell with the imminent arrival of food At the sound of a bell, the dog would salivate in anticipation Essentially, when you pair one stimulus with another you can condition someone

to learn to associate one stimulus with another

B.F Skinner- Operant Conditioning Skinner proved that pigeons could be trained to peck at a particular coloured disk

to get food rewards His experiments with rats found that they can be trained to press a lever when

rewarded with food He believed that if the subject is correctly rewarded it will give the appropriate

response (positive reinforcement results in encouraging behaviour) Operant Conditioning is based on some type of operation or behaviour which is

then rewarded ~ Big Bang Clip

Videos & Hall of Fame:Albert Bandura: Modelling or Observational learning

Bandura concluded that learning is largely a modeling experience or learning through social interaction – also includes motivation of rewards

When humans observe behaviour – either acceptable or unacceptable – they are more likely to practice it

Question - What does this mean to us? Bandura Clip-bobo doll experiment

Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs

Argued that you have to satisfy the need at one level of hierarchy, rather than becoming satisfied overall, we tend to move on and try to satisfy the need at the next level.

Consolidation… When it comes to changing individual

behaviours which approach do you think is more effective, looking to understand our unconscious desires and internal drives or using positive and negative reinforcement and punishment?

Do you think our individual beliefs, values and behaviours impact the community we live in?

The Sociological Questions:

While psychologist look at why and how individuals change their attitudes and behaviours, sociologist tend to focus on the massive shifts in the behaviours and attitudes of groups and whole societies.

See change as an inevitable process Major issues for sociologist is whether

social change is patterned, and predictable, or arbitrary and irregular.

The Sociological Questions:1. How does social change come about?Developed 3 main ways of explaining social change;2. From Decay- caused by decline or degeneration-

believed all societies began in an ideal state.3. From cycles of growth and decay- don’t believe

that societies head inevitable toward destruction, but instead go through cycles of growth and decay

4. From Progress- social change occurred as a result of continuous progress.

-early 19th C when these three became less popular wondered if it was because of a single factor or interplay of many factors.

Sociology and Social Change: Believe that human behaviour is generally patterned and

therefore potentially predictable- you just have to identify the pattern

Tend to look at one or more aspects of social change; 1. Direction of change- positive, negative i.e. pollution

emissions 2. Rate of change- slow, moderate, fast- what factors affect

this rate? 3. Sources- what factors are behind the influence of change in

a society? Exogenous- coming from another society or endogenous- coming from within the society itself. i.e. population change, technological innovation and development, influence of norms and values

4. Controllability- degree to which social change can be controlled or engineered. i.e. How successfully can we eliminate racism, spousal abuse, or teenage smoking in Canada?

Sociological Theories About Social Change: Major influence of structural functionalist- focus more on social

structures than social change. Early 20th C believed that where change did occur, it was the

result of tension & adaptation. Felt that when one part of the social system changes, tension

arises between that part and the rest- it cannot continue and therefore member's of society will seek to reduce or eliminate the tension by adapting other aspects of society- therefore equilibrium is restored.

Accumulation- change as a process of accumulation through which the growth of human knowledge from generation to generation allows society to develop new ways of doing things.

For Example- TV- family communication patterns- cost- availability- channels…

Sociological Theories About Social Change: Diffusion of innovations- as new

developments- an innovation- emergences in society whether it be technological, belief, fashion- depends on its diffusion- who adopts & who speaks in its favour

Why innovations are becoming widespread if they are adopted by young, urban, educated people with high status occupations- WHY?

Discussions/Activities:1. Make a list of 10 social changes that you can reasonable expect

will occur during your lifetime. (10 Marks-T/I)2. In which discipline-A,P,S- do you think the theories about social

change show the most variety in explaining human behaviour? Explain. (2 marks-T/I)

3. Work with two classmates- groups of 3- each of you chooses one of the social science disciplines. Imagine that you are participating in a panel discussion to explain how and why your generation is different from your parents’ generation. Role-play what a representative of each discipline might say. Which discipline has the most plausible explanation? Why? (10 Marks- C)

4. Identify a social change taking place in Canada today. 1. What are some of the questions each social since discipline would

ask about?2. Which discipline’s questions do you think would lead to the best

explanation of the change? Why? (Homework- / 10 marks- K/U)Total Marks: / 12 T/I, /10 C, /10 K/U= /32 Marks

Current Social Issues Daily Assignment Hand-out- starting tomorrow- bring your

newspaper- presentations will take place daily- will be the first 30-45 minutes of each class.