Chapter 5: Change Non-Westerners can Believe in

Change is one of the most challenging topics in the social and natural sciences, and one that requires far more attention from a psychological perspective (Moghaddam, 2002). A major reason why change in the social domain is so difficult to explain is its enormous variety and complexity. For example, consider change at three levels: (1) within persons, as when an individual is “moved” by experiencing a form of art; (2) within groups, as when the status hierarchy within a small team or a large organization changes; (3) between groups, as when a low status group mobilizes, takes collective action, and changes its status vis-à-vis a relatively high status group. These three levels by no means exhaust the variety of social change, but indicate its range.