Society affected by ‘complex technology’

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 5

Society affected by ‘complex technology’

The development of complex technology is having a psychological effect on the structures of society, says a visiting American psychologist, Professor Albert Bandura.

“There is a growing sense that people feel that they do not have the competence to understand or control these technologies, therefore they do not take a positive attitude towards it,” he said in Christchurch yesterday.

Professor Bandura is the keynote speaker at the first joint conference of the Australian and New Zealand Psychological Societies, being held this week. He is professor of social science in psychology at Stanford University, California. He has received several scientist awards, and was president of the American Psychological Association in 1974.

Since 1977, Professor Bandura has been researching the theory that “self-efh cacy” (feelings of self-con-fidence and self-worth) is the key to a person’s success or failure on the social and professional level. One aspect of the studies

has been on the efficacy of nations and organisations.

Professor Bandura said that because people, in the United States especially, could not understand a lot of the complex technology, they tended to focus on the one interest, thus leading to the formation of many single-interest factions.

There were now a lot more single-interest groups, such as an anti-abortion group, because of the technology, he said.

“The efficacy of the collective population is being undermined and the knowledge of the technology is being left to the technocrats,” Professor Bandura said. “The previous pluralism is being transferred to a more militant factionism,” he said. The single-interest groups used their power and influence in their particular area to lobby people such as politicians, who were finding it difficult coping with such specialised knowledge on a single issue. “We now have this paradox where there is a growing sense of factional efficacy where a group will use power to defeat something, yet collectively as a nation that self-efficacy is decreasing,” Professor Bandura said. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to mobilise people into a collective effort. “People in the single-in-terest groups are also becoming disillusioned about their own particular interest. By voting people out of office, they find it doesn’t make any difference,” Professor Bandura said.