social change introduction quiz

Schools of Thought: Anthropology

Schools of Thought in Psychology

Schools of Thought in Sociology

Conflict Theory

• Because the status quo is characterized by social inequality and other problems, sudden social change in the form of protest or revolution is both desirable and necessary to reduce or eliminate social inequality and to address other social ills.

Cultural Materialism

• Cultural materialism proposes three primary influences on social change — infrastructure (technology, economics, demographics), structure (cultural and kinship systems), and superstructure (ideology, religion).  When one of these component parts changes, other parts must adjust to that change.  Cultural materialists believe that technological and economic aspects play the primary role in shaping a society.  But when one part of the sociocultural system changes, it often has an effect on many other parts of the system.  

Social Cognitive Theory or Social Learning Theory

• Social cognitive theory is a learning theory based on the idea that people learn by observing others. These learned behaviors can be central to one's personality. While social psychologists agree that the environment one grows up in contributes to behaviour, the individual person (and therefore cognition) is just as important. People learn by observing others, with the environment, behavior, and cognition all as the chief factors in influencing development

Humanism 

• Change comes to society because people want to become better and make society progress.  Advancement of human rights, acceptance, equality and diversity.  Social issues such as civil rights, women’s rights, 2SLGBTQ+ equality, responsible scientific freedom, and the environment

Structural Functionalism Theory

• Human society is controlled by a set of complex rules & institutions and these hold people in check. This approach views society as a complex, but interconnected system, where each part works together as a functional whole.

• A metaphor for the structural-functional approach is the human body. You have arms, legs, a heart, a brain, and so on. Each individual body part has its own neurons and system for working, but each part has to work together for a fully-functioning structure, or system. What are the different structures, or systems, in society? You can probably think of the government, businesses, schools, and families. We need all of these systems to work together for a fully-functioning society.

Queer Theory

• An approach to social and cultural study which seeks to challenge or deconstruct traditional ideas of sexuality and gender, especially the acceptance of heterosexuality as normative and the perception of rigid male and female traits. Therefore… social change…

Feminist Theory 

• Society is studied through the eyes of a gender struggle, the oppression of women by men in society.  But more recently, this theory looks at other disadvantaged and discriminated groups in society and how to change society for the empowerment of all peoples.

Sociological Theories:

Ideas about Social Change as it relates to sociology came later than the other two disciplines

Structural-Functionalism 

• main focus of Sociology during the early 20th century

• Looked more at social structure rather than social change

• Tried to identify which social institutions influenced society

Accumulation

• Growth as a result from human knowledge from generation to generation

Textual Discourse

• People tend to communicate better with people they have something in common with - discourse. 

• Sociologists examine the difference in the ways we communicate depending on groups we are with. People communicate ideas and values through symbols, movie roles, and advertising. 

• Sociologists, such as Dorothy Smith, argued it is important to understand textual discourse when trying to engineer social change.

Tension & Adaptation

• When one part of the social system changes, tension arises between that part and the rest. 

• Tension can’t last forever so...members of society will seek to reduce tension by adapting to other aspects of society

Anthropological Theories of Cultural Change

Interaction 

• Social Change (positive or negative) that comes from contact with other cultures

Ex. Introduction of cattle ranches and fences resulted in the end of nomadic lifestyle of indigenous peoples 

Diffusion

• When one’s cultural traits and/or symbols spreads to a new distant geographical area.

Ex. North American tobacco smoked by Europeans in the 17th-18th century.

Acculturation

•  results from prolonged face-to-face contact between two cultures in which they interchange symbols beliefs and customs

Two types of Acculturation:  Type one: Incorporation and Type Two: Direct Change 

1. Incorporation - the free borrowing between cultures

2. Direct Change– one culture defeats or controls another and forces it to change aspects of its  culture. It can often involve racist policies

Cultural evolution

• Cultures evolve due to common patterns

• Karl Marx popularized this theory. Yet many sociologist argue the process of adaptation is too complicated to be reduced to patterns

Cognitive Dissonance Theory 

• The most favoured theory of attitude change. What you are doing conflicts with what you think.