Theories and Mechanisms that Greatly Affect the Social and Psychological Aspects of the People - Essay Example

Many events in the history happened gradually using various theories and mechanisms that greatly affect the social and psychological aspects of the people involved. On the case of Hitler and the Nazi Germany, it was obedience to authority during that time that made the people to have no other choice but to do what the government want's them to do. This is mainly based on the following theories and mechanisms of "boiling frog theory", "herding", and "natural selection". In the case of Jones town, social psychological theories based on obedience, conformity and cognitive dissonance lead these tragic event occur.

As far as obedience is concerned we will consider many things like the peoples demographic and social issues. Jim Jones always stood up for social causes that drew people in and he was easily able to take control his members. Because of that reputation, he was considered the people's leader. Another theory is conformity, this was easy to for him to achieve for they gave up their own beliefs in order to fit in with Jones' plan. The last theory is cognitive dissonance. As far as cognitive dissonance is concerned, it was undoubtedly occurring at Jonestown.

By doing this, Jones made his people fear leaving and become grateful for his protection. Until the unexpected tragedy happened. Other events that shocked the world share almost the same theories and mechanisms like the My Lai massacre, people looting during a blackout or natural disaster, the mob scenes, and using of media for persuasion an anything from needing Tylenol for a headache to political and ideological persuasion. Recently around the world we could read, hear and see or simply remember many disasters, charities and causes wherein people voluntarily lend their assistance and helping hands.

Assisting people in times of trouble is quite an instinct of every human being. This instinct is made even better by our desire to volunteer. Volunteerism always involve a little sacrifice on the part of the volunteers. Usually they gave up their jobs, time and focus just to give their attention and efforts to the disaster victims. Volunteers are usually backed up by an organization, may it be a charitable organization, a peoples' organization, a non-government organization, a government agency, or even international agencies like the various UN offices.

Red Cross International is also active in these activities. There are a lot more of organizations who could possibly help in assisiting disaster victims through volunteerism. Whenever and wherever there are disasters, different governments usually send their rescue teams in the disaster area. This proves us that even goverments are also sharing their resources in times of disaster. This is mainly because governments are also composed of people. Governments sometimes extend their assistance to their allies and neutral governments.

People and governments usually don't send their assistance and volunteers to their enemies. This is because "its hard to sleep with an enemy". You may not know it, they had caused the disaster as in the case of terrorism. The worst thing that will happen is that you will be their next victim.