The reflection paper focuses on the relationship between social change, alienation, and conformity. Alienation refers to the tendency of people rejecting social norms, and regard them a barrier to personal freedom and old-fashioned. Conformity is the adoption behaviors and ideas considered appropriate by the society. For example, parents emphasize the need for hygiene to their children; rock bands motivate their supporters to be expensive and loud; and teachers require their students to complete their work as expected. Social change refers to the modification of systems of a social structure, and is characteristic of alterations of value systems, cultural behaviors, social organization, and behavioral rules. Alienation decreases the chances of individuals to conform to the behaviors deemed appropriate in the society, hence a primary course of social change. Ideally, the measure of this change is subject to such aspects as the rates of unsafe driving, substance abuse, fraud, and crime.
Factors linking
Crime
From the lesson, it is evident that the center of crime lies in an individual doing an illegal activity. The definition of crime in the society requires one to understand all the processes that drive and shape the illegal activity being regarded an act of crime. The contemporary society is characteristic of define standards that govern daily human life. Basically, these are rules which categorize some activities as legal and others illegal. The society also entail law enforces with the mandate to follow-up on the standards, and ensure adherence of the entire population. If an individual breaks one of the define laws, he/she is said to have been involved in an act of crime, and ought to be subjected to corrective measures.
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Some members of the society express alienation by their unwillingness to conform to the define standards. For example, if more people fail to adhere to rules on gun control, mass shooting might occur more frequently, hence an increased rate of crime in the society. This trend translates to social change considering that the society will be transforming from an almost zero-rate of illegal gun possessing to a heavy presence of the same.
Fraud
The lesson also reveals that fraud is a significant factor creating the relationship between alienation, conformity, and social change. An act of fraud entails deliberate deception of an individual with the objective securing unfair financial or personal. In the modern society, most acts of fraud aimed at monetary gain, alongside such other benefits as false statements and documents. When individuals are reluctant to follow the right procedure in pursuit of wealth and other documents, the society begins to display a high level of alienation. Basically, societies outline all the right processes involved in the acquisition of personal and financial gains. The different authorities in the society expect all members to follow the outlined procedures hence the concept of conformity. Societies in which most people adhere to the appropriate processes have a high conformity rate, while those in which only a few people follow the right procedures have a low rate of conformity to rules regulating fraud. An increase in the rate of fraud in a society translates to social change.
Drug abuse
The relationship between conformity, social change, and alienation is also driven by the extent to which members of the society are involved in drug abuse. Notably, drug abuse refers to the habitual use of drugs that are considered illegal. Most modern societies are characteristic of an increasing rate of habitual use of illegal drugs, especially among the youth. This trend comes despite the establishment of an array of financial, health, and social consequences of substance abuse. The effects of drug use obliged social institutions to frame and implement restrictions on illegal substance abuse. The lesson has been critical in identifying the sense of alienation as individuals still engage in illegal use of drugs despite the establishment of negative consequences. In addition, the society is capable of measuring the rate of conformity to the laws regulating illegal drug use via the evaluation of its prevalence. Social change occurs whenever there are new entrants into the practice of habitual use of illegal drugs.
Survey and interpretation of results
As outlined in the lesson, the first step in the survey entails the formulation of a hypothesis. In this case, the hypothesis is about the relationship between alienation, conformity, and social change. Therefore, the hypothesis will be: “The rates of alienation and conformity to regulations influence social change in contemporary life settings”.
The second step involves the development of research questions which allow individual get information about the topic. In this case, the research questions will be:
What is your attitude towards the regulations outlined in the society?
How often do you break laws enforced by authorities in the society?
Do you influence people into activities that violate laws?
Multiple choice questions
Do you agree with most laws in the society?
Yes
No
How many times have violated a law within the last year?
None
A few
Many
Have you influenced any individual into the violation of laws?
Yes
No
Distracter questions
How often do you travel far from your area of residence?
What is your marital status?
Graphical representation of the survey results
A graph is essential in providing visual illustration of the results obtained from a survey. For example, a graph can be used to present the results for high rates of alienation and low rates of conformity.
| Number of people having negative attitude towards laws in the society | 266 |
| Number of people who have violated at least one law within the previous year | 123 |
Table 1: survey results for alienation ad conformity rates
Figure 1: Graphical representation of survey results
Anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists share the characteristic of using alienation and conformity in their description of human behavior. They argue that the rejection or acceptance of prevailing practices and beliefs in the society determined the type of behavior exhibited by an individual. For instance, they link a high rate of conformity and a low level of alienation to good behavior.’
Conclusion
The lesson has been critical in establishing the relationship between alienation, conformity, and social change. I have changed my perception that social change is a default process, to the identification of alienation and conformity as the primary drivers of social change. Besides learning that the relationship between the three concepts results from such factors as crime, fraud, and drug abuse, I have learned that the process of carrying out a survey is systematic involving at least four stages. The phases are: creation of a hypothesis, the development of research questions, development of multiple choice questions, and creation of distracter questions.
