Toll Free 1800 572 9282 
mailus@wbcsmadeeasy.in
Sources And Consequences Of Mobility – Sociology Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
গতিশীলতার উৎস এবং ফলাফল – সমাজবিজ্ঞান নোট – WBCS পরীক্ষা।
Consumers in all societies are experiencing the well publicized problems of dealing with an ever-widening information explosion. This is a consequence of expanding information requirements (for each choice situation) as well as of a rapidly growing variety and complexity of consumption decisions. A major concern of planners must therefore be the effective channeling of communications to satisfy these increasing consumer needs. Studies of similarities and differences in information utilization which examine patterns across social systems (e.g., regional and national boundaries), however, have been confined largely to descriptive statements embodied in the diffusion of innovations literature.Continue Reading Sources And Consequences Of Mobility – Sociology Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
While considerable research has addressed the psychological determinants and correlates of information processing, such literature seems inadequate to the task of defining inter-community utilization differences. Of more pragmatic importance to the communications planner attempting to facilitate search and utilization in various sub-populations (e.g., mover segments) would be a more aggregative examination of systemic factors influencing information “handling.” Thus, extending the largely descriptive innovations approach via a focus on the interplay of both psychological and social factors influencing information utilization in consumer decision making seems particularly useful.
One of the most consequential of all consumer decisions involves the choice of family residence. The changing spatial location patterns in a society reflect fundamental adjustments in the labor force and housing stock, as well as the adaptability and propensity to change of different population segments. The various aspects of spatial mobility can also serve as useful indicants of social system development. While the functional aspects of mobility have been studied extensively, the dysfunctional consequences still remain largely unexplored in empirical terms. This is particularly characteristic of knowledge concerning the impact of changes in physical environment on information needs and usage behavior.
These are several basic reasons why this problem area is of considerable theoretical and practical significance:
- Those experiencing high rates of physical mobility may have special difficulties in adjusting and responding to new social environments (e.g., Toffler, 1970; Packard, 1972).
- Those who came from different regional or national social systems bring varied bases of experience and have other characteristics which may enhance their effectiveness as transmitters of new ideas.
- Physical mobility is important as a life style attribute which can be readily measured and effectively used as a basis for market segmentation.
The conceptual scheme presented here attempts to develop a broad framework for analyzing the interaction of social and psychological variables in consumer information utilization behavior. This represents a literature review plus implications derived from several recent studies of social systems conducted by the authors. The data base used in the following section serves primarily to indicate how this scheme may be in part operationalized. While a complete application of the conceptual framework is not feasible with the data at hand, work is now underway to extend this analysis into a study of related social systems.
Physical Mobility
A review of the available literature suggests a basic distinction between two types of physical mobility. The first type involves relatively long durational expectancies and thus requires rather substantial effort to adapt to norms of a new social system. This “environmental commitment” is especially characteristic of residential changes, and, to a lesser degree, of occupational changes. This contrasts with a second type involving short durational expectances with little perceived need for adaptation and easy reversibility of behavior patterns. The “environmental transience” reflected in this classification is represented by various forms of travel, ranging from short pleasure or business trips to extended vacations. This study is concerned with the impact of both types of mobility upon the in-formation-seeking behavior of families involved in changing their residential environment.
Discussion of the consequences of long durational changes in residence or occupation shows disagreement among social observers. Packard (1972) has maintained that residential mobility–increasingly involving changes across community social systems–has social alienation consequences. He has maintained that spatial mobility (of the environmental commitment type) has rather inherent dysfunctional consequences, even for upward movers. In contrast, Gans (1972) has maintained, in line with much of the available organizational research (e.g., Vroom, 1969) that social isolation seems more frequently a result of non-voluntary spatial mobility (e.g., urban renewal), especially when the cross-system changes involve major life style alterations. It thus appears that the dysfunctional consequences of spatial mobility involving environmental commitment will depend, at least in part, on similarities in what Sheth and Sethi (1973) have termed the “cultural life style.” Similarity in cultural life style across systems should ease the potential strain resultant from voluntary, or even non-voluntary, shifts in residence and/or occupation. Thus, the move from a large city in one country to a large city in another country may require less cultural adaptation than the change from a rural to an urban area within the same country.
Mobility and Search Behavior
One major area of study concerning possible mobility-induced consequences has centered on the notion of decision making and the nature of information usage. Although seldom studied directly, a part of the concern of social observers such as Packard (1972) and Toffler (1970) has to do with information “coping” behavior. As mentioned before, Packard’s thesis is that mobility hinders general coping, stemming, in part, from the fact that normal channels of information search and sharing are disrupted. That there are differences in normative information usage patterns across cultural and even subcultural social systems has been established (e.g., Dervin and Greenberg, 1972). Where cultural life style differs, information-related behaviors (as one set of activities comprising this life style variable) also differ. The question centers on the extent to which different types of information search patterns are associated with decision processes which have been affected by physical mobility.
While some differences exist as to the ultimate consequences of long term spatial mobility, there has been apparent agreement that short term environmental transience is functional both for the individual (as a quality of life correlate and as one indication of openness to innovation) and for the social system (as a general correlate of system development). This may simply reflect the fact that this type of spatial mobility, in contrast with the first, almost always involves voluntary changes which are rather readily reversible and hence imply little commitment.
Rogers (1969; 1971) has proposed that certain types of short term mobility facilitate information search. Thus it would be anticipated that those who exhibit higher environmental transience mobility (“cosmopoliteness”) should have different usage patterns than those low in this aspect of mobility. Rogers presents some evidence that the former should utilize more deliberate and efficient search patterns. Whether this difference arises as a consequence of the increased external contact provided by environmental transience mobility or, perhaps more probably, as a function of personality and motivational differences is actually a separate issue. The precise causative factor may not be as crucial to the information planner as the fact (and nature) of differences in information search patterns.
Social Integration
The adaptation and consequent alteration in information search patterns which are required with environmental commitment mobility are not manifested equally in all consumers. Adjustment to a new communication environment is affected by the similarity of prior cultural life style and by the extent of previously experienced physical mobility–of both the commitment and transient variety. One further variable of importance involves the consumer’s level of social integration. Extent of involvement in the social system reflects both adherence to system norms and frequency of (and reliance on) intra-system contacts (Rogers, 1971). This may involve an overall higher level of communication activity with greater usage of system information sources (especially other people). As such, this would thus appear to reflect a general lack of felt “alienation” and consequently, as McLeod et al. (1966) have suggested, a greater reliance on certain types of communication sources (e.g., in-depth print media treatments).
Social Integration and Search Behavior
Packard (1972) has also suggested the potential for communication-related involvement consequences. He has proposed that social integration can act to lessen certain of the negative aspects associated with residential mobility. It is suggested that, for example, belonging to a social organization will reduce the sense of rootlessness resultant from required changes in environment, if the organization (or one closely parallel) has chapters or member groups in that new social system. Without this transference opportunity, however, even greater strain may be placed on those moving. What is proposed, then, is that contact with continuing social organizations may provide an extension of the former social system–or at least reinforce a familiar set of already shared norms. This sense of continuity or familiarity amounts to a reduction in cultural life style dissimilarity.
Furthermore, social integration seems to modify information channel exposure and influence communication opportunities. The common organization may, by means of the contacts made through these groups, facilitate information search. The result should be a group-induced and/or supported difference in information source utilization, most notable with regard to major decisions such as are involved in family housing choice.
Ultimately, it is the combination of mobility and social integration which is likely to determine how one adjusts to a new residential environment. The interaction of these factors operates both to define information needs and to provide opportunities for obtaining information. This adjustment process has important implications for overall satisfaction with life, as well as for many subsequent consumption decisions (Andreasen, 1966). The first impressions of one’s living (residential) environment formed during the period of housing search contribute significantly to the perceptual framework which is then used in the selection of shopping facilities, churches, commuting routes, and other “institutional connections.” These choices, in turn, influence the buyer’s further exposure to information channels and to the specific sources which are used in later purchase decisions. Thus, the information channels used by families involved in residential change–especially where the degree of change is substantial–can be studies as a generative system with far-reaching implications for communication planners.
APPLICATION OF THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Data Base
The data for this study were obtained from two surveys of recent home buyers conducted during the summers of 1968 and 1971. Both investigations incorporated probability samples of households who purchased either a new or previously occupied house and recorded their ownership during the first six months of the study year. Personal interviews and mail questionnaires were used to obtain information from both husbands and wives in 206 households from the Hartford metropolitan area of Connecticut, and 317 households in the Preston-Lancaster area of Northwestern England. The bases for analysis of the mail-questionnaire data presented here was reduced by nonreturns and the elimination of observations with missing information. A response rate of almost 70% was obtained for both samples. Details concerning the research design and questionnaires have been published elsewhere (Hempel, 1970).
Measurement
The communication channels used in most purchase decision processes can be classified into two major categories: consumer-dominated and marketer-dominated (Cox, 1961). These two channels may function as complementary information disseminators with considerable variance in their effects upon purchase behavior. The relative importance of different information sources used by the home buyer has been shown to vary with the Stage of the decision process and a number of consumer attributes (Hempel, 1969).
In order to examine the general patterns of information seeking among home buyers–in terms of both specific source usage and cumulative measures of channel usage–three aspects of information seeking behavior can be analyzed: (1) exposure–what proportion of the buyers recall using the source while looking for and purchasing their home; (2) sequence–among those using the source, what was the order in which each source was first contacted; and (3) evaluation–which sources were recommended to other buyers. These measures of source importance were obtained for each of 16 sources selected to represent four different types of general information channels–interpersonal communications, mass media, commercial sellers, and self-initiative.
Please subscribe here to get all future updates on this post/page/category/website
