The Salvation Army in the UK, for example, began as a social movement but has now taken on the characteristics of a more permanent organization. Reformative movements have limited objectives aspiring to alter only certain aspects of the existing society. They may focus on a specific type of injustice or inequality. Redemptive movements are concerned to rescue people from a life they see as corrupting. Many religious movements belong to this category.
Alternative movements aim at securing partial change in individuals.
A good example of a movement of this type is Alcoholics Anonymous. Sociological research on social movements has tended to focus on the social and psychological characteristics of their participants, the relations between the leaders and the led, and the social and political outcomes of their activities. An example of a social movement that has been influential over the last few decades is the Women's Movement. The Women's Movement has not only provided subject matter for sociologists to study, but it has also changed the ways in which sociologists think about certain areas of social behaviour and identified weaknesses in established frameworks of sociological thought. The feminist movement is a good example of the ways in which social movements can help to bring about social change.