A social psychological perspective on human behavior.
Imagine that you are asked by the chair of the political science department at your local college to provide an article for an upcoming student publication, providing a social psychological perspective on human behavior. Select a topic from the list of current or historical social movements, issues, events, or ideas provided by your instructor to form the basis of your analysis.
Locate at least three popular sources (news articles, etc.) that portray the topic differently (i.e., opposite points of view; preferably, you will locate at least one article from left, right, and center). You will find Media Bias Ratings (Links to an external site.) useful for identifying diverse sources and searching for articles on a specific topic via the “Balanced Search” option. In your initial post,
Summarize the different perspectives, interpreting the social cognitive principles that explain how those on both sides of the selected topic maintain and support their views. Although not a comprehensive list, the following concepts may be appropriate to consider: attribution, belief perseverance, confirmation bias, heuristics, cognitive dissonance, self-esteem, impression management, and so on.
Predict the role of context (including culture). How do differing circumstances explain the variation in viewpoints?
Discriminate potential career applications of this insight. What are some professions that may benefit from recognition of the social cognitive principles to help explain or lead to different perspectives?
Sample Solution
The topic I have chosen to discuss is the current Black Lives Matter movement. Recent events in the United States have highlighted some of the issues faced by African Americans due to systemic racism, prompting a wave of protests and social movements that are calling for greater justice and equality.
When looking at media sources on this subject, it is easy to see how different perspectives can be interpreted. For example, one article from The Atlantic (Rosenberg & Blake, 2020) discusses how BLM is helping to bring about real change in America\’s criminal justice system, highlighting their successes with regards to legislation reform and increased awareness about racial disparities. On the other hand, an article written by Fox News (Sperry, 2020) paints a very different picture – claiming that BLM has become \’radicalized\’ and uses violence as its main tactic for achieving its aims. It further suggests that there are more effective ways of tackling police brutality such as focusing on specific policies instead of attacking law enforcement as a whole.
These viewpoints can be explained through various social cognitive principles including impression management (considering public opinion when deciding what action to take), attribution bias (the tendency to attribute people\’s behavior based on their external traits rather than internal characteristics or context), and confirmation bias (seeking out information which confirms our pre-existing beliefs). Additionally cultural norms such as gender roles may come into play here: since historically men have been viewed as being more aggressive than women they might interpret BLM differently depending on whether they identify with male or female gender roles.
In terms of career applications this insight could be particularly useful for professions such as counseling/therapy where understanding people’s individual reasoning behind their behavior is essential for providing successful treatment plans; having an appreciation for differing perspectives will help therapists develop meaningful relationships with clients from all walks of life. Other areas where this knowledge could come in handy include business/management consulting whereby recognizing varying points-of view would allow them to better understand employee motivations when making strategic decisions; similarly politicians could benefit from taking into account multiple factors when devising policy proposals so that everyone’s interests are taken into consideration before any definitive action is taken.
In conclusion, we can see how recognizing different outlooks regarding social issues like BLM can offer valuable insight into human behavior – enabling us not only gain deeper understanding but also apply it towards functions ranging from therapy sessions right through to political speeches.
