Social Change and Collective Behavior By: Amanda Haynes, Jake Daulton, Andre Ramoska, Kendal Heldoorn, Tina Bohmfalk Period 4.

Social Change and Collective Behavior

By:

Amanda Haynes, Jake Daulton, Andre Ramoska,

Kendal Heldoorn, Tina BohmfalkPeriod 4

Social Change: new societal behaviors with important long term consequences

Can social change be predicted? It is hard to predict because the change of society depends on the current culture.

Key Assumptions in Predicting Social Change in America by Tocqueville:

1. Major social institutions would continue to exist

(ex: family, religion, or state)

2. Human nature would remain the same

(ex: people becoming worse individuals)

3. Equality and the trend toward centralized government would continue

4. The availability of material resources limits and directs social change

(ex: land, minerals, rich soils, natural resources)

5. Change is affected by the past, but history does not strictly indicate the future

(ex: things that have occurred both in the past and present day)

6. There are no social forces aside from human actions

(ex: some factors are beyond human control)

Social Processes: a series of steps leading to a change in society- Three important social processes are discovery, invention, and diffusion.

Discovery Process: when something is learned or reinterpreted

(ex: the shape of the earth, used to believe it was flat)

Invention Process: creation of something new from something that already exists

(ex: flight led to space travel)

Diffusion Process: when one culture borrows something from another culture; it may only be a part of a borrowed characteristic or trait

(ex: norms, foods, values, styles of architecture)

- The pace of social change through invention is closely tied to how complex the society is. This is similar to diffusion which depends on the amount of social contact between the two groups.

- Most aspects of culture are borrow rather than created. Diffusion is the most popular process.

Other factors that lead to social change:

Technology: knowledge and tools used to achieve goals - prime promoter of social change

- (ex: silicon chip which led to the creation of computers)

Population: the baby boom which has influenced employment opportunities and

retirement plans

The Natural Environment: natural disasters, land changes due to colonization

Revolution: sudden overthrow of a social/political order (ex: Karl Mark tried to eliminate class-based inequality, seeks fundamental changes)

War: organized armed conflict within a society or between nations

The Functionalist Perspective:

Equilibrium- a state of functioning and balance, maintained by a society’s tendency to make small adjustments to change.

(ex. Continuing the presidency despite scandals in the Nixon and Clinton administration and social equilibrium was shaken after an earthquake caused the collapse of the LA freeway)

Stability temporary instability stability (dynamic, or moving, equilibrium)

Dynamic Equilibrium: In 1972, a broken dam led to the destruction of the community of Buffalo Creek, West Virginia.

The Conflict Perspective: the result of struggles among groups for scarce reasons. (ex. Enactment of civil rights laws in the 1960s as a result of the struggle over racial equality)- Many assumptions of the conflict theory come from Karl Marx, who once wrote, “without

conflict, no progress: this is the law which civilization has followed to the present day.”- Social change comes from a multitude of competing interest groups; political, economic,

religious, radical, ethnic, or gender based. - Society changes as the power relationships changes between these groups.

Symbolic Interaction: Humans interact with each other based on commonly shared symbols.

Urbanism- the distinctive way of life shared by the people living in a city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l29-2cZNEX8

Defining Collective Behavior

• Collective behavior- Refers to the spontaneous behavior of a group of people responding to similar stimuli.

• Collectivity- Collection of people who do not normally interact and who do not share clearly defined norms.

• Dispersed Collectivity- Collectivity made up of people who are not physically connected but who follow common rules or respond to common stimuli.

• How can sociologist study a completely spontaneous and unplanned phenomenon?

Spontaneous

Mad?

Rumors, Legends, Fads, and Fashions

• What is a rumor?

• Definition- A widely circulating piece of information that is not verified as being true of false.

Rumor??

Mr. Schumacher?

Ya He is super Sexy!

Fact!

Urban Legend

• Definition- A moralistic tale that focuses on current concerns and fears of the city or suburb dweller.

• Or. Moralistic tales passed along by people who swear the stories happened to someone they know or to an acquaintance of a friend or family member.

Example

I heard from a friend Cough Ryan Cough that Mr. Schumacher beat up batman!

Fad

• Fad- An unusual behavior pattern that spreads rapidly and disappears quickly.

General example

Sad

Fashion

• A widely accepted behavior pattern that changes periodically.

You already know what this is.

Nothing funny in this slide

Mass Hysteria and Panic

• Collective anxiety created by the acceptance of one or more false beliefs.

Or in English a bunch of people getting worked up over nothing

Panic- Reaction to a real threat in fearful, anxious and often self-damaging ways.

Crowd

• A temporary collection of people who share an immediate common interest.

Crowd

Mobs and Riots

• Mob- emotional crowd ready to use violence for a specific purpose.

• Riot- Episode of largely random destruction and violence carried out by crowd.Difference? Mob is organized and a riot is not

Theories

• Contagion theory- Theory stating that members of crowds stimulate each other to higher and higher levels of emotions and irrational behavior.

• Emergent norm Theory- Theory that norms develop to guide crowd behavior.

• Convergence Theory- Theory that states that crowds are formed by people who deliberately congregate with like-minded others.

Boring

ACTIVITY

• Why do you think this fashion was popular during the 20’s?

• What about it is different from our fashion today?

• What is similar?

Social Movementssocial movement- movement whose goal is to promote or prevent social change. It

is the most structured and rational form of collective behavior(ex: religious organizations engaging in effort to oppose abortion)

– A large number of people– A common goal to promote or prevent social change– Structured organization with commonly recognized leaders– Activity sustained over a relatively long time period

4 Types of Social Movements

revolutionary movement: attempts to change the total structure of society. (ex. American Revolution)

reformation movement: attempts to make limited changes in society(ex. Antiwar movement of the 1960’s)

redemptive movement: seeks to change people completely (ex. The religious cult of David Koresh)

alternative movement: focuses on bringing about limited changes in people(ex. In 1960’s Population Growth, try to limit size of families)

Two theories of social movements have emerged from sociologists analyzing collective behavior because of the highly structured nature of social movements.

1) Value-added Theory

2) Resource Mobilization Theory

Value-added theory: certain conditions must exist for social movements to occur.

There are 6 steps that add “value” to the final entity.

1) Structural conduciveness

2) Structural strains

3) Generalized beliefs

4) Precipitating factors

5) Mobilization of participants for action

6) Social control

Resource mobilization theory: social movements that focus on the use of resources to achieve goals.

– Include human skills like leadership, organization ability, and labor power, as well as material goods (money, property, equipment)

(ex. gays have recently achieved greater equality. It can be traced to active support from a broad segment of American society. Now more people support equal rights for gays than before)

Member Contribution

Amanda Haynes- Outline Section 1, Youtube Video Clip

Andre Ramoska- Outline Section 4

Jake Daulton- Outline Section 3

Tina Bohmfalk- Outline Section 2, create quiz

Kendal Heldoorn- Create activity, provide food for activity

Notes•Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l29-2cZNEX8 (1190’s pop culture)

•Search google images: computer, airplane, space shuttle, 20’s attire, social change, collective behavior, natural resources, rumors, rumor phone, batman, fashion show, Godzilla, massive hysteria, crowd, spontaneous, green shoelace, kid, smiling kids, war

•http://smhs.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=55630&type=u&rn=2412945