Social Perspectives Essay Sample
Introduction
Social psychology generally deals with the study of behavior of individuals, their interaction within the society and its impact on the individual as well as society. A number of topics come under the aspects of social psychology, of which discrimination and prejudices are one of the significant concerns. Social identity can be simply explained as an individual’s perception about themselves based on their interest and preferences and it suggests to which group, they belong to. In this study, social identity theory will be discussed in order to understand its importance in the development of discrimination and prejudices in society. Apart from that, the applicability of the theory in the elimination of discrimination and prejudices from the society will also be highlighted.
Discussion
Prejudices and discrimination
Prejudices and discrimination may result in a number of negative incidences including racism, genocide or other unfortunate events and these are quite difficult to change (Arzhanova, 2019). Prejudices can be explained as an individual’s preconceived opinion or ideas against people or other elements, which have not been developed by their own experience or does not possess any valid reason or purpose. On the other hand, discrimination is the result of prejudices and the consequences of acting on the feelings or perceived opinions mentioned above. Prejudices and discrimination are usually mistaken to be the same but, these two aspects have remarkable differences. For example, prejudices against aged or elderly people have been observed to be developing all across the world recently (Francioli & North, 2021). It has been evident that older people tend to scold or lecture the younger generation for their lifestyle and different habits even in public places or mainstream media. This has led to the development of a negative image of every older person in millennials’ minds in general. Even the kids or adults who have not experienced such issues now tend to avoid interacting with older people due to the perceived fear of being scolded in a public place. Eventually, these prejudices against aged people lead to the conflict between the two different generations and the kids become hostile even towards their parents. Similarly, the study of Hakim et al., (2018) has shown that discrimination against people lead to the development of prejudices. For example, in a country where the minority community is being discriminated against and treated unequally by fellow citizens, discriminated people are more likely to develop a negative feeling towards every other citizen of the country in general. They would be forced to think that every single person belonging to the other community is unfair and supports racism.
Explanation of the theory
Social identification theory can be referred to as social psychology, which is basically a study of interplay between social and personal identities. The main aim of social identification theory is to predict and specify the circumstances under which individual persons think of themselves as a group member or an individual (McLeod, 2019). This specific theory also leads to development of discrimination, prejudices, social influences, attitudes and others among individuals. There are mainly three mental processes that are involved in evaluating other individuals as them and us, that is, out-group or in-group, which takes place in a particular order.
The first stage is categorisation. In this stage, individuals categorise people, as they categorise themselves as well for identification and understanding. For instance, an individual can categorise others as a bus driver, lawyer, teacher and others. The following stage is social identification. In this stage, the individuals are known to adopt the identity in which they have categorised themselves (McLeod, 2019). For instance, an individual had categorised himself/herself as a teacher. Instantly, the person would be starting to adopt the identity of a teacher and the ways teachers act and thereby conform to the norms of the group. Finally, the final stage is social comparison, in this stage; the individuals determine their social standing or value of the groups and its members. For instance, school teachers can be viewed as having a higher social standing or value in comparison with a garbage collector. Additionally, in comparison with the university professors, the school teachers can be seen as having lower social values. In this manner, comparison in the society gets carried on among individuals.
Role of social categorisation in the development of discrimination and prejudices
With categorisation of individuals in the societies, there is an extensive chance of development of discrimination among the individuals. Often it can be seen that individuals belonging to a particular category are categorising other individuals as white, black, Muslim, Australian, Christian and others (McLeod, 2019). From one angle, the categorisation can assist individuals in understanding their belonging in the society, nature of work, attitudes and perceptions. However, from another angle, with categorisation, stereotyping among individuals also increases to an extensive level, which exaggerates the differences between groups and similarities of things in the same group. Additionally, categorisation develops certain perceptions about the people belonging to certain categories of groups. For instance, Black people belong to a lower social standing due to the colour of skin and others. However, from the perception of humans they can be exceptional. Nevertheless, due to these types of categorisations, the issue of discrimination rises. Due to the issue of discrimination, several black people suffer, even by being innocent. In the US, social categorisation can be noticed to be extensive from the viewpoint of various people.
From the figure in the appendix, it can be understood that most black people have negative views on the racial progress of the country (Refer to appendix 1). Additionally, 59% say that being white has helped them in getting ahead in society (Horowitz, Brown & Cox, 2019). Thus, it can be vividly understood that categorisation creates a major differentiation in the people of the society. Furthermore, several incidents can be noticed, that involved killing of black people in the US. In May, 2020, George Floyd died after being arrested in Minneapolis (BBC, 2021). The police had held down the person in a brutal manner with his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, even after pleading that he could not breathe. Furthermore, after his death, several protests and demonstrations broke out across the US, accompanied by demonstrations in other parts of the world as well with a tagline of Black Lives Matter (BBC, 2021). Apart from just George Floyd, several other incidents have occurred with black people. Even after the death of George Floyd, police have continued to brutally kill black people. From the databases of The Washington Post and Mapping Police Violence, CBS news has compiled a list of 164 Black men and women that were killed by the police during the span of January 1st to August 31st 2020 (Cohen, 2020). These incidences significantly show the issues of social categorisation with discrimination of individuals. Due to this discrimination, different related cases with different individuals are being carried out over different societies around the world. Even the innocent individuals are encountering major consequences due to these social differences in categorisation. A sense of equality and importance of individuals is getting critical to address due to these social categorisations.
Importance of social identification in the rise of discrimination and prejudices
In accordance to the study of Klik, Williams & Reynolds (2019), social identification plays a major role in the rise of discrimination and prejudices in the society. With the assistance of the social identification factor, individuals tend to identify people based on the categories they belong to and accordingly treat them. For instance, the Muslims are identified to be violent in nature in various countries. This has often resulted in intolerance of Muslim religion in various countries around the world. Despite understanding their individual personalities, social identification grants the people to judge people based on their identification of belonging to a certain category of people. In the US, 65% of the Muslim respondents have states that there is “a lot” of discrimination against the Muslim religion in the country (Green, 2017). 60% of the Muslim and 68% of the Muslim women have said that media coverages are unfair of Muslims (Green, 2017). Furthermore, when they were asked that what are the most crucial problems that the US Muslims are encountering in recent times, the responses were “discrimination, racism, [and] prejudice”, “Trump’s attitudes [and] policies toward Muslims” and “Muslims [being] viewed as terrorists” (Green, 2017).
Furthermore, American Muslims are not a big fan of their former president Trump. They responded that Trump is “unfriendly” towards the Muslims belonging to the US (Green, 2017). This states, that the social perception of the former president of the country has negative impression on the Muslim religion. Due to certain negative incidents involving Muslim, the whole religion is encountering issues. The individuals identified as belonging to the Muslim category is facing issues around the world after the incident of 9/11 (Gallup, 2022). Furthermore, the western society has also developed Islamophobia, which is an Anti-Muslim sentiment. From the global data, it has been analysed from the reports that Muslim do not feel respected by the western countries.
From the figure in the appendix, it can be understood that different Muslims belonging to different countries around the world are responding towards the rate at which they are getting respect from their residential countries (Refer to appendix 2) (Gallup, 2022). The majority of countries in which Muslim have responded to be not getting respect are the US, Canada and the UK with 52%, 48% and 38% respectively (Gallup, 2022). From this evidence, the implication or negative impacts of social identification towards discrimination against religion in the society can be extensively noticed.
Impact of social comparison on the establishment of discrimination in the society
Along with social comparison, individuals are respected on the basis of the categories they belong to and their respective identification. It can be stated that a doctor is respected extensively in comparison to a garbage collector. In several societies, it has been noticed that with social comparison, individuals identified by their respective profession are respected accordingly. For instance, in simple terms a doctor is much more educated, serves for the well-fare of people and also earns a huge amount of money. A garbage collector does not possess that much educational qualification and also does not earn that much money. Thus, judging from these and some other parameters, the discrimination in the form of respect between the doctor and the garbage collector increases. However, the workers regarded to belong in the lower category can also take pride in the work that they are doing and can identify with the organisations that are employing those (Scheepers & Ellemers, 2019). It needs to be stated that every job needs to be regarded as a prestigious job regardless of their social standing, as every job is equally important.
Furthermore, there are several people that work by offering mental support to the lonely people and others and they literally enjoy working by providing support to the people in need. Despite these, different societies view income and type of job as a parameter for discriminating and thus, discrimination increases. Social comparison can often be termed as negative as it creates a sense of negativity in the minds of people belonging to different categories in the society. Additionally, due this comparison, the competition in the society increases, which often results in depression, suicide and others significantly due to societal pressure or peer pressure. Between the period of 2009 and 2017, the rate of depression has increased by more than 60% (Heid, 2019). The justification for depression is extensive. However, social pressure to become something prestigious in life can be considered as of the major reasons for depression and suicide. Thus, social comparison can most of the time result negatively in individuals belonging in the society and can implicate outrageous actions, harming a systematic and fruitful growth of the society.
Application of social identity theory in the removal of discrimination and prejudices
It has been discussed above in the study that social Identity theory can be used to explain the development of prejudices and discrimination in society. Similarly, the theory can be helpful in understanding the different ways to eliminate the prejudices and discrimination prevailing in the society as well. It can be done in the different stages of the development of the social identity process.
During the process of social categorisation as suggested by the theory, an individual tends to categorise a particular group or community due to the characteristic or qualities possessed by them. Categorisation helps in the development of attitude towards the target person or group (Grigoryan, 2020). In this stage of the process, groups can be categorised by the positive characteristics present in them instead of the weaknesses and negative qualities. For example, while categorising the people on the basis of age, their experiences can be considered as one of the characteristics. Its advantages should be kept in mind in order to avoid the development of any prejudices related to the behaviour of the elderly people. Hence, in the social categorisation stage, positive traits of the people can be considered, which can help in the eradication of prejudices as well as discrimination to a great extent.
The next step of the social identity suggested by the theory is social identification. In this step, individual’s usually put themselves in a group. In this stage, in groups and out groups are determined, therefore, this stage can play an important role in the elimination of prejudices and discrimination from the society. Social identification determines a person’s perception regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the members belonging to the out groups (Farivar et al., 2018). Perception is the key element operating behind the development of prejudices and the acts of discrimination occurring in the society. Hence, the social identification stage can be beneficial in developing positive perceptions regarding the members of the out groups and it will eventually reduce the risk of discrimination.
Final step of development of social identity is social comparison as mentioned earlier in the study. Social comparison enables an individual to build a clear idea about the accuracy of feelings and thoughts. Social comparison can sometimes be responsible for the reduction of self-esteem as well as poor wellbeing (Rosenthal-von der Pütten et al., 2019). Decreased self-esteem sometimes leads to the development of insecurities from other people eventually resulting in prejudices and discrimination. Hence, an individual can focus on integrating the qualities they lack in their personalities with the help of social comparison rather than developing insecurities about them.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the study that there are several prejudices, which has been prevailing in the society and these prejudices leads to the occurrence of different discriminating acts. It has been observed from the study that prejudices against black people have led to the killing of many individuals like George Floyd and others. In addition to that, there has been a number of discriminations reported against the Muslim community in certain countries including US. Social identity plays an important role in the development of such prejudices and results in such unfortunate events. On the other hand, social identity can also help in eliminating these prejudices and discriminations by developing positive perceptions and focusing on the good qualities of others.
References
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