In a study conducted with 358 African American adolescents, Neblett (2009) studied the racial construction of the high school students and the influences race had on their identity. This longitudinal study identifies patterns of adolescent-reported racial socialization from a medium-sized public school district in the Midwestern United States. There were 144 male (40%) and 214 female (60%) participants and they ranged from 11 to 17 years of age. The study observed two important things: self-definition of race and the importance of this meaning to the respondent. During the study, each spring from 2002-2004 a group of students was added to the study, having a total of 3 groups. During the first wave of this explanatory study, respondents were …show more content…
There is evidence to believe that one factor of identity is the outlier of all the rest in each region. This characteristic will hopefully weigh more on an individual’s social construction of identity than the rest of the factors. However, there is also hope for consensus among geographical areas. This will prove that political conflicts, migrant populations or the spread of religion influence the social construction of identity. In addition, there is hope that these geographical areas have such explanations for the consensus view of their identity. Each region should have an explanation for the majority of identities constructed by their populations to be similar and the factors used to be weighted …show more content…
This study will analyze how people’s thinking differs from place to place, while looking for a correlation in the answers provided. Causality will not be derived, but the background information collected will set up a theory to potentially test on these geographical areas. To conduct the study, an online survey will be created. This survey will include closed/fixed and open-ended questions. The questionnaire will allow people to express their perspective of their selves, but also limit the range of answer in order for them to be compared. This study will code the questions in the survey to understand which factor is most dominant in each geographical area. The survey will be administered online to reach as many respondents as possible. It is also the most financially feasible and timely option for the study at this
This scholarly article discusses a study done on biracial identity development in children. The article discusses “the similarities and differences between Black and White racial identity development in the United States and address special challenges for the biracial child.” I hope to use it as a source when discussing the struggle to form an specific identity
One of Beverly Tatum's major topics of discussion is racial identity. Racial identity is the meaning each of us has constructed or is constructing about what it means to be a white person or a person of color in a race-conscious society. (Tatum, pp Xvii) She talks about how many parents hesitate to talk to their children about racism because of embarrassment and the awkwardness of the subject. I agree with her when she says that parents don't want to talk about racism when they don't see a problem. They don't want to create fear or racism where none may exist. It is touchy subject because if not gone about right, you can perhaps steer someone the wrong way. Another theory she has on racial identity is that other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves. (tatum pp18) 'The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflects back to us.'; (Tatum pp21) What she means by this is that what other people tell us we are like is what we believe. If you are told you are stupid enough you might start to question your intelligence. When people are searching for their identity normally the questions 'who am I now?'; 'Who was I before?'; and 'who will I become'; are the first that come to mind. When a person starts to answer these questions their answers will influence their beliefs, type of work, where they may live, partners, as well as morals. She also mentions an experiment where she asked her students to describe themselves in sixty seconds. Most used descriptive words like friendly, shy, intelligent, but students of color usually state there racial or ethnic group, while white students rarely, if ever mention that they are white. Women usually mention that they are female while males usually don't think to say that they are males. The same situation appeared to take place when the topic of religious beliefs came up. The Jewish students mentioned being Je...
...of many concepts forwarded by academicians that inaccurately assesses identity development. Dr. Cross conceptualized theories are oversimplified, as they implicate all black Americans as unified in their upbringing; family structure; values systems, beliefs, economic status, level of education, and exposures to racial indifference; which is clearly inaccurate. Simplistic models of this sort exclude an individual’s experiential background, which provides important variables to consider when assessing one’s comprehension of what it means to be black. Further, Dr. Cross’ model failed to explicate a connection between identity and psychological functions.
It has been said that the physical variations in the human species have no meaning except the social one that humans put on them. Society has placed stigmas on race dating all the way back to the 1600s. Still in the 21st century the American society is still trying to work through racial boundaries. With such stigmas being placed on them, biracial individuals often self-identify or be identified by others differently, depending on the social context. A biracial individual’s racial identity development is contingent upon many factors, both internal and external. With the dramatic increase in the number of individuals with a bi or multiracial background it is important for us to recognize the complexity of the racial identity development of this culture. It is critical to understand the hardships as well as the advantages of being biracial, to help them avoid any negative behaviors which could yield lifelong consequences. The healthy development of one’s racial identity is imperative for a biracial child to be able to achieve and maintain a positive psychological and social adjustment throughout the lifespan.
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Some of the strengths of the social identity theory are that; throughout the years it has supported many empirical studies, it has also demonstrated the social categorization in intergroup behaviors, allowed us to differentiate between social and personal identities and has provide explanations for other areas of psychology (conformity). A weaknesses of the Social identity theory is that its application is restricted in the sense that it has very low ecological validity. Another weakness is that SIT favors situational factors rather than dispositional is not supported by evidence. The social Identity theory can be used to how to explain how we form our social and personal identities in the terms of in and out groups. SIT can also be used to explain why there is conflict between humans and different societies.
Firstly, inclusion and exclusion of different communities happens in specific locations, where identities are viewed as either marked or unmarked. A marked identity signifies something unfamiliar, and thus abnormal, connected to a particular place and history. These identities can be determined by race, ethnicity, class, family, education, or an idea of 'us' and 'them'. Hence, typically, the Western identity is unmarked and normal, whereas other identities from other places are viewed as strangers with strange habits, conventions and social structures (Taylor, 2009). Moreover, everyday practices also propagate certai...
The items of the research instrument of this study was divided into 4 main categories:
Adolescences has always been the most crucial time for developing identity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between racial identity development of African American adolescents and the role of education. This paper will discuss the effects race has on identity and adolescent development. Following, it will compare students education from a racial perspective and the lasting effects after adolescence.
For the purposes of this study I have defined cultural identity as the feeling of self-definition an individual has which is formed through a sense of belonging to a certain group. In this presentation I will be looking specifically at the effects of religion to this sense of cultural identity.
The relationship between social construction and identity was brought up to discussion in week one. Questions were constantly being asked though out the tutorial and lecture, these questions were asking about my identity. Who are you? How do you define yourself? Where are you from? What are your interests? These questions when answered described who I am and what I am about. It defined my personal identity in a nutshell. Social construction refers to the way we create meaning through social interactions with others (Cloke et al 2010, p. 939). In the tutorial discussion we spoke about how social construction creates our identity to some extent, relating social construction as some sort
Social construction theory explains how government policies affect different groups of citizens by rewarding them or punishing them by government body (Ingram, Schneider & Deleon, 2007). When a policy is introduced by policymakers the benefited groups and burdened groups of the participants are contemplated and policy is designed based on that purpose. Before taking the decision making, the rational government takes two below mentioned stands.
In psychology, social work, and philosophy, there are many ways to explain how people view themselves and their place in the world. Some take a cognitive approach to reasoning while others rely on emotions. Each have strengths and weaknesses in their perspectives yet none can be described as “wrong”. One such theory is the social constructionist theory. This theory is one of world making; where people create their own images of reality and use stereotypes to make sense of this image (Schneider and Sidney, 2009). More technically defined, the social constructionist theory is “an approach that focuses on how people learn, through their interactions with each other, to classify the world and their place in it,” (Hutchison,
The participants involved in the research will be selected at random. Both male and female participants will be selected for the research. This will help to avoid biasness in the research which can lead to calculation of erroneous and wrong results. The age of these participants will vary depending on the highest education level attained by the participants. Participants involved in this research are of age 25 years and older. In this case, it will help to reflect the number of years spent or invented in schooling and their salaries in the job market. Six partici...
This chapter forms a general introduction to the study. The first two sections of the chapter give the background to the study and the problem statement. The other sections of the chapter outline research objectives, research questions, research assumptions, significance of the study as well as the scope and limitations of the study.