Susan Davis “Causes of Prejudice” by Vincent N. Parrillo “Causes of Prejudice” is an attempt by Vincent Parrillo to present the catalyst behind the origination of racial grouping from socialization to economic rivalry. Parrillo feels that the main reason for prejudice is due to several underlying sets of forces, convoluted feelings and behaviors, not just one single cause. He explains that prejudicial attitudes can either be positive or negative, and that they fall under sociological and psychological perspectives. It is Parrillo’s belief that both perspectives are crucial in the understanding of prejudice. In “Causes of Prejudice,” Parrillo would like his audience to see that knowing the differences between the social and psychological perspectives will give a deeper understanding of inter-group relations and the rise of prejudice.
The Deindividuation theory was developed to attempt to explain the processes that take place once people have joined together to form a crowd. It posits that the structural features of a crowd, antecedent variables such as anonymity (Zimbardo cited in Dixon & Mahendran 2012), arousal, external focus and group cohesion (Deiner, Prentice-Dunn & Rogers) results in a diffusion of responsibility which in turn results in: a loss of a sense of personal identity, a reduced sense of personal responsibility that ultimately leads to increased aggression and irrational, anti-normative behaviour. To critically evaluate this theory and to seek whether it can explain looting behaviour, specifically of 2011, one must ask the question, does the structure of a crowd result in members losing a sense of ‘self’ or does it produce a change in identity salience; producing a shift to a more ‘social self’ (Dixon & Mahendran 2012), that is regulated by group norms? (Social Identity theory) One also has to evaluate the evidence that has been used to support the theory. This essay will argue that by considering individuals have a single personal identity that has to be present for controlled behaviour, a loss of which will lead to anti-normative behaviour is to ignore a social sense of self.
Shallow ecologists believe that different aspects of the natural world are interconnected, so the way that we treat nature should take this into account. Subsequently, they believe that the existing political and economic structures must be transformed so that they place environmental issues at the centre of their concerns. They
Society can limit the ways in which people express their identity and seek to fulfill their potential. Our identity is shaped by positive and negative experiences. It is also a self-representation of our interest, relationships, socially activity and numerous other factors. Our sense of identity also stems very closely from our sense of belonging and how we relate to something or someone. However, the society or the occupants of the place we reside in have an underlying impact on how we express ourselves and fulfill our potential. Society defines the right and wrong for us, thereby limiting the choices we have to express ourselves.
As a result, the formation of ethnic enclave exists due to different people from different identities. Immigrants always find a place that has people in the same background and identity, so that they can live and help each other. For examples, there are China Town and Japanese Town in Los Angeles. They can communicate and hang out with each other without knowing English. The ethnic enclave is a significant character of Cultural Pluralism.
The focus of this model concerns the brain and functions and abnormal behaviors and unobservable deviant thought processes (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Environmental stressors and external pressure that may provoke dysfunction and abnormal behaviors are accounted for in the sociocultural model. The sociocultural model relates to communication, religion, and family values, and morals (Hansell & Damour,
Social identitiy theory proposes that people belonging to a group can increase their pride and self esteem, as the group gives a sense of belonging. A group provides rules and norms to each the whole group obey to, these rules are internalized and we use them to regulate our behaviour. The theory states that in group will discriminate against outer group to make them feel better and to enhance their self image. This theory was proposed by John Turner and Henri Taijef in 1979, they stated that there are three mental processes involved in evaluating others as ‘us’ or ‘them.’ These three mental processes are; social categorization, social identification and social
Social institutions are institutions that fall in a variety of categories. Some are government institutions such as colleges and government agencies including the United States Postal Service and the National Park Service. There are also social institutions that are created between people socially; an example is a club or organization such as the Boy Scouts of America. All of these examples help define social institutions. A social institution refers to “a complex of positions, roles, norms and values lodged in particular types of social structures and organizing relatively stable patterns of human activity with respect to fundamental problems in producing life-sustaining resources, in reproducing individuals, and in sustaining viable societal structures within a given environment” (Turner).
These big ideas can be categorized under social thinking, social influence, or social relations. The idea that we construct our social reality falls under social thinking, it describes the natural human urge to explain behavior, by attempting to attribute it to a cause, in order to make it seem orderly, predictable, and controllable (Myers, 2010). According to social psychology our social intuitions are powerful and sometimes perilous, suggesting that the human ability to understand something immediately, molds or influences behavior because it also shapes fears, attitudes, impressions, and relationships (Myers, 2010). It is also believed that social influences shape behavior as does behavior shape social influences. Myers (2010) provides an example as to how behavior is shaped by social influences making humans social creatures, “We speak and think in words we learned from others (Social psychology, p. 7).
The study attempts to prove the internal validity between the two variables and a regression model was created to show how the variables reacted with one another. The dependent variable: concern for the environment, was chosen based on an analysis of the overall survey. The question was worded in a way respondents could answer without questioning or second-guessing their answers. Through my predictions, having this question as the dependent variable effects the outcome of the independent variable: rate of recycling, the most. The independent was chosen based off my research and literature review in which the hypothesis states those who recycle are more concerned with the environment.