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 its
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 1950s 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

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