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NotesESSTopic 1.1How perspectives change over time
Back to ESS Topics
1.1.93 min read

How perspectives change over time

IB Environmental Systems and Societies • Unit 1

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Contents

  • Views change over time
  • Reading a behaviour-time graph
  • Government and NGO campaigns
  • Social and demographic change
  • Exam-style question
What was normal changes: Thirty years ago, people smoked in restaurants and took a new plastic bag with every shop. Today most would find both odd.

Perspectives, and the beliefs behind them, change over time in every society. What one generation sees as normal, the next may see as wrong.

Smoking

  • Once normal indoors.
  • Now banned in most public places.

Littering

  • Once common.
  • Now seen as antisocial.

Plastic bags

  • Once free and everywhere.
  • Now paid for, and reused.

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A behaviour-time graph shows a change like this. Time runs along the bottom; the behaviour goes up the side.

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Reading the graph

  • What is measured? Bags per person.
  • Trend: flat, then falling fast.
  • When does it turn? 2015.
  • Why? Link the turn to an event: the charge.

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Campaigns are a deliberate push to change what people think and do.

Government campaigns

  • Laws and charges, e.g. England's 5p bag charge.
  • Public-information adverts, e.g. anti-littering posters.

NGO campaigns

  • Charities and pressure groups.
  • e.g. beach clean-ups and petitions against plastic.
How campaigns work: They give information, stir emotion, create social pressure, or change what is cheap and easy. The best use several at once.

Views also shift without any campaign, as society itself changes.

Generations

  • Young people who grew up with climate news are often more concerned.

Education

  • More years of schooling spread scientific understanding.

Where people live

  • Moving to cities changes daily life, from food to transport.
Traditional lifestyles: In some indigenous communities, traditional ways of living are being replaced by modern ones, and views of nature change with them.

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How this comes up: A graph of a behaviour over time: describe the trend, then suggest what changed it.
IB-style questionSuggest[3 marks]

A behaviour-time graph shows plastic bag use in a country fell from 140 to 25 bags per person in the two years after a bag charge was introduced. Suggest how the charge changed people's perspective on plastic bags.

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Why one point per paragraph?: Each point earns [1]. Separate paragraphs make every mark easy for the marker to find.

IB Exam Questions on How perspectives change over time

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How How perspectives change over time Appears in IB Exams

Examiners use specific command terms when asking about this topic. Here's what to expect:

Define

Give the precise meaning of key terms related to How perspectives change over time.

AO1
Describe

Give a detailed account of processes or features in How perspectives change over time.

AO2
Explain

Give reasons WHY — cause and effect within How perspectives change over time.

AO3
Evaluate

Weigh strengths AND limitations of approaches in How perspectives change over time.

AO3
Discuss

Present arguments FOR and AGAINST with a balanced conclusion.

AO3

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Related ESS Topics

Continue learning with these related topics from the same unit:

1.1.1Perspectives
1.1.2What shapes a perspective
1.1.3Values
1.1.4Where values show
View all ESS topics

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1.1.8Technocentric, anthropocentric and ecocentric
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The environmental movement1.1.10

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