Social Change

Social change occurs when a society as a whole adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm.

Majority influence leads to compliance and Minority influence leads to internalisation.

Minority influence occurs by having 3 behavioural styles:

Consistency -Indiviguals in a minority must maintain the same belief or atitude over time. By being consistent, the minority is harder for the majority to ignore.

Confidence- Confidence sends a message to the majority that the position is a serious one,which is not going to go away.This means the minority view will demand attention and respect from the majority.

Persuasiveness - A minority group needs to be persuasive to attract others over to its position.

The snowball effect - the minority becomes the majoirty

The suffragette movement of the 1920's campaigned against all odds to bring women to vote in the majority of britain, gaining the same rights as men.

Terrorism might be considered a from of social change through the process of minority influence.

Figures who have influenced social change:

-Hitler

-Martin Luther King

-Rosa Parks