Christianity & Intelligence
Reed College has been widely regarded as a campus with a pro-atheist sentiment and an anti-religious outlook of the world. T-shirts that display the seal of the college advertise atheism as a concept of paramount importance. The aim of this psychological study was to determine whether students of Reed College implicitly associated Christianity with unintelligence and atheism with intelligence. Numerous Implicit Association Tests (IAT’s) have been used to determine whether or not people have underlying biases toward particular racial or social groups. Based on the speed of responses when associated with one ethnic group or another, one is able to determine just what sort of hidden biases may exist in the mind of the subject. Especially intriguing in this case is the idea that Christians may be construed as less intelligent than atheists on Reed’s campus. How does this construal, if present, affect diversity at Reed and the acceptance of various social and religious groups? Is there a certain degree to which individuals who cherish religious beliefs are ignored due to their association with Christianity? The goal of this study is to make a determination as to whether there is an association with intelligence and belief in a Christian God. This study will determine whether this association, if existent, is explicit or implicit, or both. Using an IAT, we will present various words associated with atheism and Christianity in addition to words associated with intelligence and stupidity. My hypothesis is that there will be a certain degree of underlying bias that views Christians as less intelligent individuals than atheists.
The participants for this study were twelve students in the Intro Psycholog...
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...ill feel less welcome here. Thus, religious and intellectual diversity are curbed due to various implicit and explicit associations. It is somewhat comforting to know that the research was limited in the fact that only a small sample size could be taken. Perhaps if an entire sample of the campus could have been measured, we would be able to find the direct implications of the research. As it happens, it would be very interesting to discuss and explore other modes that may limit diversity at Reed. Is there an implicit association with Republicans and non-intelligence? Do Reedies value the opinions of people from different social and ethnic groups less through implicit or even explicit associations? And does this carry a direct influence on those interested in matriculating at the college? These questions would be interesting to explore in future tests of association.
Hanser and Gomila (2015) states, “For many younger juveniles, adult gang members serve as role models whose behavior is to be emulated as soon as possible to become full-pledge gang-bangers because of the prestige, respect, and sense of belonging that the gang-banger role provides them” (341). Other reasons why female juveniles join gangs was due to lack of family support and various types of violence in their lives. Hanser and Gomila (2015) noted “The involvement of juvenile females in sexual activities, substance abuse, and violence was clearly related to membership in gangs” (p. 348). Sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs. Female juveniles living in urban ghettos are more likely to be sexually abused, and they join gangs as a way of coping and to escape the realities of poverty. Female juveniles will experience more hardships as compared to make juveniles, before they are fully received as full pledge gang members. As previously stated, sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs; however, sexual abuse does not end there because it continues to occur throughout their gang life (Hanser & Gomila,
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
This paper will be reviewing the book “Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity: an introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations and models of integration, by David N. Entwistle. As the title states, this book discusses how to integrate psychology and theology. It also dives into to why it is so important to be able to integrate the two. Entwistle explains that just because the two are different does not mean they should be separated and that we have to use both our worldviews. “Weaving together perspectives from psychology and Christian theology can help us understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could either perspective alone.” (p.3)
Gang involvement has been quite higher than past years. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey estimates that about 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties had a gang problem (Egley et al., 2010). This represented a 15 percent increase from the year 2002. The total number of gangs has also increased by 28 percent and total gang members have increased by 6 percent (Egley et al., 2010). This shows how relevant gang related activity is in today’s society. More locations are beginning to experience gang activity for the first time. Gang crime has also been on the rise in the past...
Kosmin, Barry A. "Atheist Demographics." The Atheist Scholar. The Atheist Scholar. Web. 16 May 2014.
In 2000, Christians made up the majority of the population in America. Shown by the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)...
Gangs have been a point of concern for states and societies around the world for centuries. Youth gangs are not exempt from that same categorization and have operated for the same amount of time worldwide. Over the last century however, a proliferation of youth gangs has been witnessed, especially among Hispanic youths immigrating into the United States. Researchers and scholars have offered multiple theories as to why youths, and Hispanics youths in particular integrate themselves into gang organizations. Three schools of thought arise when conducting gang integration research. Rational Economics Theory1 proposes that youths, and all individuals, join gangs for financial and material benefit. Cultural Deviance Theory considers youth gang members as exposed to a lower class subculture that rationalizes and even promotes crime, delinquency and gang membership, contrasting to the “normal” set of prescribed values and culture in more civilized society. Acculturation Theory argues that youths join gangs as a means to be acculturated by ethnically or compositionally similar peers, whether as a response to ethnic marginalization by members of the host country or inability to acculturate to their new home.
...ferences and similarities as its predecessor atheism. Individuals and groups continue to assert their ideologies through their writings and critics continue to rebut these claims. As discussed, new atheism has shown evident different approaches in showing how religion has detrimental effects on society using events such as the many previous wars that have been initiated due to issues concerning religion. New atheism also addresses how these views and conceptions are forced upon children which highlight the significant developments of the ideas that have emerged since traditional atheistic times. By understanding how atheism and new atheism has developed and evolved, it can also be understood that there will be an endless and continuous arrivals of more diverse interpretations, approaches and goals of new atheism and issues revolving around religion in the future.
Gangs are a big part of today’s society. They contribute to a large part of delinquent behavior present in our youth today. Chapter 8- Peer and Delinquency: Juvenile Gang and Groups provides an overview of gangs in general. Providing details as to why they formed their different activities, language and codes. First we must highlight that adolescents are the main focus in gangs. As children grow and go through adolescence they seek peer acceptance. They form cliques. Their group of friends play an important role is social development. The choice to join a gang can be contributed to acceptance and a sense of protection (Siegel).
These issues are of utmost importance, gang membership does not only present an issue on an individual level, but on a societal level as well. Gangs are well-known for their proclivity for violence, even to those who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Youth gang crime is no longer limited to big cities; these problems have now spread beyond those boundaries into suburbs, small cities, and even rural areas (Spergel & Grossman, 1997). These organizations put us all at risk, and are a threat to public safety. Furthermore, these groups put our youth at risk and threaten to destroy their
Annotated Bibliography Journals: The Journal of the American Denson, N., & Chang, M. (2009). Racial Diversity Matters: The Impact of Diversity-Related Student Engagement and Institutional Context. American Educational Research Journal, 46, 322-353. This article discusses the different forms of racial diversity contribution to students’ educational and learning experiences and the positive effects on students who adopt these diversity opportunities. The author demonstrates how the quality of higher education is substantially heightened by diversity-connected efforts.
Colleges and Universities play a major role in developing the behavioral patterns of young adults. In addition to developing young minds, colleges help to cultivate character, responsibility, and social acceptable behavior. Students who attend Carlford have expressed their dissent with the current environment of the university. Because of these underling issues, Carlford’s retention rates amongst minorities have suffered. If Kirsten is unable to handle the situation, there will be a trickledown effect to all areas of the university. Being a new professional in the field of Higher Education can be challenge. There are times where an incident directly affects your position and there are other times where there issues that affect the entire institution. Because the issue directly pertains to Greek Life, the Coordinator of Fraternities and Sororities has the responsibility of identifying the concerns and implementing initiatives that will allow the college to be proactive in future situations of this nature.
Most gang membership are started in elementary, middle school, and high schools. Many gang members seek for young kids that do not know any better or are struggling in society in way and are seeking for validation. Youth gangs are linked with very serious delinquency problems. When gangs are brought up to kids in school, many children that become involved are surrounded by guns and easy availability of drugs. Most of these illegal activities are done in school. These activities promote violent victimization at schools. Gang activities can also be disruptive to a school’s environment. It creates a high level of violence in schools as well as fear among the students. Since many of their fights takes place publicly many members of society that are not involved in the violence being performed by these groups are injured by just being around at the wrong place and
In the article “Prevalence and Development of Child Delinquency” written by Howard N. Snyder, he explains that “Older juveniles often influence younger children. In addition, studies have shown that juveniles who associate with deviant peers are more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior and arrested at a younger age than those who do not associate with such deviant juveniles” (Snyder 36). Children that are abused and/or associate themselves with delinquents run a greater risk of developing delinquent behavior themselves. According to "Breaking the Cycle of Violence: A Rational Approach to At-Risk Youth." Written by Judy Briscoe, “Peer rejection may also influence child and adolescent delinquency by inducing the rejected child to associate with deviant peer groups and gangs. Gang membership provides a ready source of co-offenders for juvenile delinquency and reflects the greatest degree of deviant peer influence on offending. Also, youth tend to join gangs at younger ages than in the past, which leads to an increased number of youthful offenders.” (Briscoe 8) Although children tend to have the same values and beliefs as their parents, their different experiences and influences while growing up shape their beliefs and their view of the world, which has a direct impact on their ability to make rational decisions. It’s possible that if a child had
Whitehouse H. 2008. Cognitive Evolution and Religion; Cognition and Religious Evolution. Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology n. s. Vol. 3. No. .3