Be Who You Are
I know it’s Christmas and everyone is filled with the holiday spirit, or at least I hope you are. Instead of giving you some sappy holiday story though, I’m going to pitch you something real.
Are there some days where you feel you just can’t stand people because of the way they act? Or, are there just some people that you can’t stand because of their clothes, appearance, or maybe even the people they chill with? Just let me ask you one question, why? Don’t know? Of course you don’t. A study done by Jessica Hopkins at Northern Kentucky University can help you better understand why you do these things.
“Social identity theory predicts a correlation between self-esteem and acceptance of others under the assumption that an individual with low self-esteem would satisfy the need for in-group favoritism by expressing prejudice. Our results support the hypothesis that individuals with low self-esteem are less accepting of others,” states Hopkins.
This simply means that most people our age have a problem with self esteem, and according to the statement, one would judge others because of their friends and a need to “belong” to a certain group. You know it’s true. I see it everyday. It is normal for teenagers to judge and create prejudice. Otherwise your friends would make fun of you and you wouldn’t be “cool” anymore. Here is your next brain teaser. Why do you care what your friends think? This means that they are judging you, and what a coincidence, you and the people you hurt are in the same boat! How about that? Number two, are they really your friends if they do that to you? I didn’t think so.
So why are you going to sit there and be an associate of this hate crime. Or, in your terms, “Why you gotta sit there and be a hater?” There is an old school saying that says “ What goes around comes around.” Well my friend, if you don’t watch yourself it might be coming to you. Of course there are going to be people different from you, everybody is different. The goal is to be unique and be your own person.
Steele, C., Spencer, S. J., & Aronson, J. (2002). Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. (In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 34, pp. 379-440. New York, NY: Academic Press.
There are several reasons why offenders commit hate crimes, they vary from case to case, however, one key element is fear which is caused by ignorance. The offenders fear the unknown and the competition they feel that exists, them vs. the ‘others’. When fear is accompanied by other factors it could potentially lead to a violent crime. “The
The question of whether self- esteem has significance with real world- consequences is a valid concern. Ulrich Orth and Richard W. Robins provide the answer, with evidence contributed by researched studies, in their article The Development of Self- Esteem that self- esteem, in fact, does influence societal significance. With the determination on self- esteem trajectory from adolescence to old age, self- esteem stability, and the relationship between levels of self-esteem and predictions of success and failure, one can conclude that self- esteem influences life outcomes; moreover, people can participate to involvements focused at positively influencing the development of self- esteem.
Much of the research on false consensus has demonstrated that people tend to over project how many members of their in-group are likely to share their attitudes and behaviors. This effect diminishes when comparing to an out-group. It is thought that this occurs because people feel that people who they do not consider to share a group identity with will likely have different basic attitudes and behaviors than they.
The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
There are both state and federal laws that prohibit hate crimes, but proving an assailant committed a crime in prejudice is very difficult. Any type of crime can call for some form of punishment, from fines and short prison stays for misdemeanors to long term imprisonment for felonies. Once it has been reviled that an accused willfully committed an offense, proof must be given that indicates the crime was influenced by prejudice against a specific characteristic in order to show that it was also a hate crime. When this can be proven, the harshness of the crime automatically increases. People often wonder why hate crime punishment is harsher than for crimes that are not motivated by any type of bias. The basic reason for this is that most crimes are directed at an individual, but hate crimes are against an entire community. A burglar who breaks into a random home does so for personal gain, and usually doesn’t even know who lives in the home they are invading. Conversely, a person who chooses a victim based on a particular bias is singling out a ch...
Like I’ve said before, those with similarities of people victimized by hate crime are also affected, showing us that these crimes are an issue in our world. Hate crimes are violent actions motivated by a bias. They have almost always been apart of history, but that doesn’t make them okay. Hate crime rates have risen and lowered, but it doesn’t guarantee that it’s going away. Hate crimes don’t just affect one person- they can affect anyone with similar qualities of the victim. So please, don’t go setting your neighbor’s house on fire because you don’t like their skin color or religion, you could affect more people than you think.
A hate crime is a crime motivated by several reasons that include religion, sexual orientation, race, nationality, gender etc. It typically involves physical violence, intimidation, threats and other means against the individual that is being targeted. It is a crime against the person and it can have a devastating impact on the victim. Several argue that hate crimes should be punished more severely. However, it is not a crime to hate someone or something if it does not lead to some sort of criminal offense.
Someone commits a hate crime every hour. In the most recent data collection, 2014, a reported 17, 876 hate crimes were committed. This is a national crisis that we cannot allow to continue.
Due to self-depreciating attitudes and beliefs, the individual tends to have a low internal self-esteem. The individual perceives the physical and cultural characteristics identified
By comparing ourselves with other people we categorize and label those who are similar to us as the in-group and people who differ from our-self are categorized as the out-group (Duff & Peace, 2012). We act in ways to favor our in-group rather than out group, this is called in-group favoritism. In-groups and out-groups are evident in many social environments, for example, children form groups with those who like playing similar games to them. In a study that explains in-group favoritism, an experiment was conducted by allocating individuals into groups based on the result of a coin flip (Billing & Tajfel, 1973). After having been told their group members, the participants then had to allocate points to members of their own group (‘in-group’) and to the members of the other group (‘out-group’). These members of the in-group ...
Social comparison and positive distinctiveness. Our social identity contributes to our self-image so we look for positive social identities to keep a high self-esteem. Comparing in groups and out groups allows us to enhance superiority of a group. The Social identity theory explains that the in group will discriminate against the out group to en...
"Social Acceptance and Rejection: The Sweet and the Bitter." Association for Psychological Science RSS. Association for Psychological Science, 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .
Many people say it is hard to fit into today’s society. We grow up in a world where we do not want to stand out because that is considered wrong. We want people to accept us, but we cannot do that when we do not fit in. You may not like the people who fit in, but you have to get to the top somehow. Some people feel they must help people in need because they have more than them and it sometimes hurts to see them have less. Some people are nice to others, but you can’t be nice to everyone. Can you really reach the top by fitting in and not standing out?
The question, “What is involved in being true to your self?” is very complicated. There are many aspects to this question. First you would need to know what is meant by being true. Being true is the act of putting forth sincerity, or being genuinely faithful. It is honesty, seriousness, and earnestness. Next you would need to realize what it means to be a self. In class we discussed the difference between animals, rational animals, and people. This topic also came up in the reading about the concentration camps. Frankl quotes,