PSYCHOLOGISTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
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Provide Evidence


Provide evidence of change when exploring different views

Public acceptance of inequality could be understood as a form of cognitive avoidance in response to threat. Research on the appraisal of threat in ‘scare tactics’ used in health education campaigns has suggested that when people doubt that individual action would work or doubt their ability to respond, they reduce the threat by denial, avoidance, or reactance18
(see below). It may therefore be important to provide examples of significant social change in order to counter feelings of helplessness or hopelessness (see below). 


Countering helplessness and hopelessness about social change It can be helpful to remind ourselves that, in recent decades, there have been significant social changes: • In South Africa apartheid ended in 1994 after decades of struggle.
• The percentage of the world living in extreme poverty has fallen from 85% in 1800 to 12% now.19
• In public health, smoking has reduced
• Deaths from homicide and road traffic accidents have fallen.
• With regard to conflict, the peace process in Northern Ireland has maintained progress since 1998.
• In 60 years there have been big changes in relation to sexuality. In 1953 sex between men was illegal. In 1967 it became legal ‘in private’ so long as the men were over 21. In 1994 the age of consent reduced to 18. In 2000 the age of consent was reduced to 16 (equivalent for heterosexual sex) – though the vote was so close it required the Speaker to use his (rarely used) casting vote. In 2002 the civil partnerships bill was passed and in 2013 same-sex couples were allowed to get
married.
• During this period, the Conservative party moved from trying to prevent schoolchildren learning about homosexuality in the 1980s to a party which supported the introduction of same-sex marriage in 2013. 

References

18 Nestler, S. & Egloff, B. (2010). When scary messages backfire: Influence of dispositional cognitiveavoidanceontheeffectivenessof threat communications. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(1), 137-141.
19 Chivers, T. (2015). Retrieved 19.02.16 from http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/things-you- didnt-know-about-extreme-poverty#.sg3YNwPPo 




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  • Home
  • About
  • Groups
    • England >
      • North East >
        • Sheffield
        • Leeds
      • North West >
        • North East
        • A North West Just Recovery following coronavirus
        • Manchester- PSPO letter
      • Midlands >
        • Midlands
        • Leicester
      • South East >
        • East Anglia
        • Hertfordshire
        • London
        • Oxford
        • Suffolk
        • Surrey
        • Sussex
      • South West >
        • Bristol and Bath
        • South West
    • Ireland
    • Northern Ireland
    • Jersey
    • Scotland
    • Wales - Cymru >
      • Elections 2021
      • Building Resilience and Community Wellbeing
      • Social and Political Causes of Poor Mental Health
      • Responding to Austerity and Mental Health in Wales - Accessible Document
    • Start a New Group
  • Blog
  • Position statements
    • UK >
      • Response to Panorama: Undercover Hospital Abuse Scandal
      • Esther McVey: PSC and RITB response
    • Cymru / Wales >
      • Connecting the Dots Report
      • Chemical Imbalance Myth
      • Review of use of dx PD
      • UK Inhumane Removal Plans
      • WG LGBT+actionplan
      • Ty Coryton
      • Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities: The Report
      • ECT Review
      • Black Lives Matter
      • COVID 19 and Internet Access
      • Save the T4CYP Programme
      • Support the Mind over matter Report
      • UN Report on Extreme Poverty in the UK Letter
    • England >
      • Psychologists for Social Change support the moratorium on school exclusions in England
      • Racism is Not Entertainment
      • Letter to Jeremy Hunt
      • UK Government Green Paper, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision
      • Exam Crisis
    • Ireland >
      • End Direct Provision
    • Northern Ireland
    • Scotland
  • Campaigns
    • Structural racism demands a structural response
    • Embed anti-racism in the NHS
    • COVID-19 >
      • Mutual Aid
      • COVID and mental health
    • PSC Manifesto 2019
    • Visioning a new education system
    • New Savoy Conference Statement
    • Formulating Policy >
      • Origins of Happiness? PSC response
      • Basic Income: Psychological Impact Assessment
    • Preaching to the Non-Converted
    • Psychologists Against Austerity >
      • Austerity Briefing Paper
      • Everyday Austerity
    • Private Health Watch
  • Join our mailing list