Social Change

The social change movement

The social change movement is defined a group of individuals acting together to address a particular social or community issue.  Any action to promote the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, communities, and cultures is also considered as social change. The overall goal of social change is to improve human and social conditions.

Social change impact on myself, my family, or my community.

September 11, 2001 was a tragic event for social change. Just like any other day, people attended work, school, lived their normal lives, just as any other day. The fear was not present as we believed that our country was safe, unbreakable. However on this day, things changed. Three hijacked airplanes were hijacked and the events would change America forever.

The Muslim-American continue to struggle with finding a way to reconcile American and Islamic identities. Muslims, one an overlooked minority were transformed in the eyes of the American public into something to be feared. Muslims became the newest, and most immediately threatening minority. Americans’ fear Muslims as they label every Muslim as a jihadist. However, they do not understand that the jihadist act due to a deeper misconstrued social, political and cultural force. The way society react to Muslims has been significantly altered.

Cowen (1991) discusses the importance of psychological wellness, wellness for different groups and across life spans. One threat to wellness is resilience which increases stress due to life events and circumstances. Competence can also be seen as a threat to wellness as over a life span competences change. System change and empowerment are also threats to wellness as the pursuit of wellness depends on an individual’s strengths and also the interaction they have within their social system. When individuals lack these four, wellness can become threatened. Merton (1936) discussed purposive action and isolated purposive acts as one kind of action is done without awareness of reasons; another kind of action is done because the agent is aware of reasons for that action. Anticipated and or unanticipated consequences are terms Merton (1936) uses frequently and describes is as an event that occurs after the action.

References

Cowen, E. L. (1991). In pursuit of wellness. American Psychologist, 46(4), 404-408.

Merton, R. K (1936) The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. American Sociological Review. 1(6), 894-104