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Folk theory of social change
Author(s) -
Kashima Yoshihisa,
Bain Paul,
Haslam Nick,
Peters Kim,
Laham Simon,
Whelan Jennifer,
Bastian Brock,
Loughnan Stephen,
Kaufmann Leah,
Fernando Julian
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
asian journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-839X
pISSN - 1367-2223
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-839x.2009.01288.x
Subject(s) - industrialisation , industrial society , social change , psychology , social psychology , positive economics , sociology , environmental ethics , political science , economics , law , philosophy , anthropology
People have a folk theory of social change (FTSC). A typical Western FTSC stipulates that as a society becomes more industrialized, it undergoes a natural course of social change, in which a communal society marked by communal relationships becomes a qualitatively different, agentic society where market‐based exchange relationships prevail. People use this folk theory to predict a society's future and estimate its past, to understand contemporary cross‐cultural differences, and to make decisions about social policies. Nonetheless, the FTSC is not particularly consistent with the existing cross‐cultural research on industrialization and cultural differences, and needs to be examined carefully.