Social Context Theory
Psychologists and sociologists use social context to study social changes over time. Social context theory is based on the interplay between social forces that affect individual behavior and individual and group actions that change society. The theory defines these changes, recognizes what brought the changes about, searches for any future patterns, and, if necessary, offers solutions.
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Social Structures
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Social structures are factors and institutions that shape behavior. These can be individualized, such as a person's education, religious beliefs, job and health status. The factors can also be pervasive, such as governmental organizations, race, class status, technology and media messages. Whether a person lives in an urban, suburban or rural area can also shape outlook and behavior.
Social Processes
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Social processes are how people view and interact with social structures. These processes are shaped at an early age by some social structures, particularly education, religion, health and class, but are also subject to genetics and family relations. Social processes tend to be consistent over time, with slight changes in views of various institutions. A person can support one social structure but dismiss another, as in being pro-religion but anti-government.
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Social Realities
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Social realities are ideas or behaviors that all individuals within a given society recognize, even if they do not always accept or practice them. Examples of social realities include a common history, language, customs, morals and legal system and creative collective views among most society members. However, behavior acceptable now may not have been acceptable previously, so the realities are subject to change over time. Even group history can change as new facts or new interpretations become available. For instance, the removal of Native Americans from tribal lands by white settlers moving to the West was once viewed as Manifest Destiny but is today often regarded as morally wrong at best, or at worst, genocide.
The Causes of Change
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Change results when social processes and social structures come into conflict. A rise in immigration changes a society's demographics in opposition to some people's wishes. Technology creates greater disposable income and leisure time until an economic downturn forces people to work more hours, which they now resent. A religious leader seeks to change certain social structures, like government or education, but meets resistance from the majority of society.
Sometimes sweeping change is created by major movements or failures of institutions, like the Great Depression, while other times it is gradual, like changes in civil rights a century after the Civil War ended.
Policy
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Politicians can curtail future problems by using social context theory to predict social changes and creating legislation. If legislators realize that people are co-habitating more than marrying, they can pass laws to help these new couples achieve the same rights or benefits as married couples. If demographics are changing, then cultural concessions can be made regarding language or customs. If populations are migrating to find work, then money can be used to upgrade the infrastructures of growing cities.
Psychologists can take the opposite approach. By recognizing changes brought on by shifting social structures, they can help people understand and cope with these differences.
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- Photo Credit Ed Yourdon: flickr
