Attitudes, Racism and Culture
Psychology Research Essay: Attitudes, Racism and Culture
Focus: Simple interpersonal contact is not sufficient enough to reduce prejudiced attitudes. Prejudice is most likely to be reduced when several factors are in effect.
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Attitudes are long term ideas individuals hold about themselves, objects, other people and issues. They have three components; affect (feelings), behaviour (actions) and cognition (thoughts). Attitudes are not something individuals are born with; they are learned from direct experiences and interaction with others.
Attitudes are developed from the culture in which we live. In the movie “Remember the Titans” the students initially had negative attitudes towards students of the opposite race. Their parents, who might have had negative attitudes from past culture and experiences, influenced their attitudes. Derogatory expressions and their parents’ views played in role in the formation of their own attitudes. The culture of the society in America at the time had also affected how the students had formed their attitudes. African-Americans had been made ‘equal’ yet material evidence of this in society was not evident, prejudices had not yet died out of society. For races to integrate was not yet socially and culturally acceptable and the students were either brought up in the society and culture to believe and have attitudes that the races were not equal or they were afraid to single-handedly break the barriers society had built.
Social values are what people in and as a community think. They are the standards in social life which are considered to be important. In “Remember the Titans” each race or community had their own social values. The white Caucasian community held appearances, religion (presumably Christianity), education, and money, and relationships, among other things, as social values. The African-American community, coming from a past of limited freedom, valued
Focus: Simple interpersonal contact is not sufficient enough to reduce prejudiced attitudes. Prejudice is most likely to be reduced when several factors are in effect.
_________________________________________________________
Attitudes are long term ideas individuals hold about themselves, objects, other people and issues. They have three components; affect (feelings), behaviour (actions) and cognition (thoughts). Attitudes are not something individuals are born with; they are learned from direct experiences and interaction with others.
Attitudes are developed from the culture in which we live. In the movie “Remember the Titans” the students initially had negative attitudes towards students of the opposite race. Their parents, who might have had negative attitudes from past culture and experiences, influenced their attitudes. Derogatory expressions and their parents’ views played in role in the formation of their own attitudes. The culture of the society in America at the time had also affected how the students had formed their attitudes. African-Americans had been made ‘equal’ yet material evidence of this in society was not evident, prejudices had not yet died out of society. For races to integrate was not yet socially and culturally acceptable and the students were either brought up in the society and culture to believe and have attitudes that the races were not equal or they were afraid to single-handedly break the barriers society had built.
Social values are what people in and as a community think. They are the standards in social life which are considered to be important. In “Remember the Titans” each race or community had their own social values. The white Caucasian community held appearances, religion (presumably Christianity), education, and money, and relationships, among other things, as social values. The African-American community, coming from a past of limited freedom, valued
Bibliography: Texts Fletcher, J.,& Garton, A.(2007) Psychology: self, others and society Rawlings, M., & Skouteris, H. (2007) Heinemann psychology one (2nd ed.) (pp 308-368). Heinemann Harcourt Education Australia Websites