PS31C Applied Social Psychology

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PS31CApplied Social Psychology

• Section 2 Models of Action and Change

Lecturer Sophia S. Morgan sophia.morgan_at_uwimona.
edu.jm
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• Most of the important things in the world have
  been accomplished by people who have kept on
  trying when there seemed to be no hope at all!

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Lecture 2AStructure Agency

• Brief Notes

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Structure
Agency
Individual
Behaviour/ Action
Change
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Structure Agency

• To fully understand the nature of individual
  behaviour and change, we must study the behaviour
  of an individual in relationship to other
  individuals, in relationship to the social
  structure .

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Structure Agency

• Structure
• The network of social relations in a society
• rules and procedures, configured activities
  and authority relations that reflect and
  facilitate meaning Weick

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Structure Agency

• Agency
• Volunteristic action or wilful behaviour
• Agency involves choices - one is able to select
  both goals for action and means to meet those
  goals.

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Structure Agency

• Structure provides a frame in which
  behaviour/action takes place
• All behaviour/action takes place within some
  framework of constraints
• Behaviour/action is not necessarily determined by
  this frame but is influenced by it this goes
  for even those action that seem
  individualistic

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Structure Agency

• Individual behaviours/actions are governed by
  relative autonomy we have some situational
  freedom to act
• We have to understand how agency operates in a
  particular context what are the variables that
  will influence action?

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Structure Agency

• We can not change the social structure, but we
  can moderate its consequences
• Changes to social structure are usually long term
  and there are many intervening variables

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Structure
Agency
Individuals as psychological entities