Social Psychology in Real Life - Essay Example

Social Psychology in Real Life People as active participants of social environment cannot be perceived outside of their interpersonal and intergroup cooperation. One way or another, the aspect of close interaction within society sets a stamp upon humans’ way of thinking as well as their way of life. Being guided by conscious mechanisms or subconscious motives, men act in a particular manner, which serves as a reflection of most common views prevailing in their surroundings. In other words, social psychology finds its realization in everyday people’s determining by some specific socially driven backgrounds great many events in the world. Just so, there is a tragic death of the 18-years old unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, which has happened in St. Louis in August of 2014 (Reuters). This event can be viewed as a casualty, a reckless homicide, or a cold-blooded murder. If to take into consideration not so rare cases of Afro-Americans’ murders, this one is seemed not staying apart of them. Naturally, particular reasons for such actions account for specific social aspects of people’s subjective negative attitude towards blacks just because of their skin color. The thing is about humans’ practice of building up of forward conclusions about people and intentions of their behavior far too often being based only on hearsay unchecked and probably false information. As a matter of fact, the case of Michael Brown’s murder evidences strongly pronounced impact of racial prejudices of society. The officer who has killed the teenager is likely to transfer his negative vision of African Americans in general to a personality of the black boy in particular. This may be due the policeman’s own professional experience of black people’s involvement in some crimes solved by him or due to his baseless totally negative attitude towards them. Whatever has happened in the head of the officer, Michael Brown is killed being unarmed or so to speak being armed with his skin color, which, unfortunately, may be seen by many men as an almost direct warning of possible implicit threat. To all intents and purposes, the case is extremely tangled, as even witness testimony and statements of officials are of a contrary nature. Thus, “St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the officer, who was working for a private security company when Wednesdays shooting took place in the St. Louis neighborhood of Shaw, had shot at the 18-year-old in self-defense after the teen opened fire on him” (Reuters). At the same time, “People in the neighborhood have told reporters that they remember what happened next as a series of movements: the officer, it seemed to them, trying to put Brown into a car; Brown running with his hands in the air; the policeman shooting; Brown falling” (Davidson). As a consequence, those facts bring two scenes to our imagination, namely: Michael Brown’s assault on the police officer and Michael Brown’s direct suffering from the policeman’s violence. Taking into consideration that according to other testimony the teenager was unarmed, it goes without question that there was some other ground for the murder than so-called self-protection. Moreover, “The St. Louis County Police Department says that a police officer stopped Brown and his friend, for some unknown reason” (Neocritic). In this respect, our strong belief is that it is very social dimension of racial opposition that has triggered the officer to shoot the black teenager. The event described above provides evidence of some theories of social psychology at work in the case of racial prejudices, which are produced by specific peculiarities of people’s social interaction and directly affect humans’ conscious and subconscious motives for real acts. First of all, it is referred to cognitive dissonance theory, as there is a demonstrated misfit between several cognitive elements, that is, thoughts, experience, and information probably presented in the policeman’s idea of the black boy. The conflict lies in two concepts: Michael Brown is inherently an ordinary youngster who must not be perceived as a potential suspected of something unlawful just because of his black skin, but the police officer in all probability sees the boy in a negative light starting out from his personal malign view of African Americans’ nature in whole. Obviously, there must be somewhat of discomfort of contradictions on the subject of different data of one and the same issue – objective and subjective information about African Americans in the mind of the police officer. Still, it is felt that the murderer has followed his ill idea of black people that stimulated him for pulling a trigger. It must be said here that if only there were sound unprejudiced vision of blacks by the officer, the case of Michael Brown’s murder apparently wouldn’t take place. This is the very point where cognitive dissonance theory can be applied for changing of the man’s motivation in order to adjust current knowledge and socially driven attitudes. As we can see, the whole complexity of the policeman’s perception of African Americans and dominance of negative aspects over positive ones has led him to the evil action. In such a specific context, theory of social psychology is reflected in events of real life. There also can be seen one more theory of social psychology in the case of the black teenager’s murder, that is, correspondence bias or the fundamental attribution error. If one imagines a situation in which the black 18-years old boy, accompanying by his friend on his way to his grandmother, allows himself to use some insulting words towards somebody in his surrounding or just in his talk with his friend, then it becomes more or less clear that in the eyes of almost every one and especially a racially prejudiced person he is seen as a bad lot. Indeed, for a man with negative attitude towards representatives of other races even loud speaking or other insignificant aspects are enough for fault-findings with further moral or physical abuse of completely innocent people. This is the very mechanism of correspondence bias, when general perception of a human is based on analysis of his occasional behavior. In such a way, very often situational effects serve as unjust cause for subjective treatment of men. This can be especially concerned in relation to the case of Michael Brown’s murder in its direct analysis from the perspective of the police officer’s possible negative vision of blacks. Notably, there is presented the overestimation of the situation in downside: odds are good the policeman even has not wanted to give a chance to change of his own perception of African Americans for the better one. At that matter, the transfer of negative vision of black people alongside with eventual behavior of the victim has established and led to the common ill vision of the black teenager and his murder. If to relate the analyzed event from the viewpoint of Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking”, it becomes apparent that his theory of two-second appraisal of reality or the meaning of the first impression for further understanding of the whole situation proves its value in real life. According to his statement “We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it… But there are moments, particularly in times of stress, when haste does not make waste, when our snap judgments and first impressions can offer a much better means of making sense of the world” (Gladwell). Introducing this concern into the research of Michael Brown’s murder helps to understand falsehood of the police officer’s actions, which have led to the death of the black boy. If only the policeman had no prejudices towards African Americans (time-taking decisions), that situation wouldn’t bear tragic character, as there is very likelihood that his intuition could make him to act in a different way. To sum it up, the above mentioned thoughts about the policeman’s socially driven attitudes towards black people must not be perceived as foundational proofs, as they are only our attempt to find realization of social psychology’s theories in real life. Still, consideration of the smallest possibility of our rightness in the analysis of Michael Brown’s murder evidences manifestation of particular influence of active involvement into social interaction between people on their thoughts as well as their deeds. Works Cited Davidson, Amy. Why Did Michael Brown Die in Ferguson? The New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2014. Retrieved 29 May from: http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/michael-brown-die-ferguson Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. Back Bay Books, 2007. Retrieved 29 May from: http://www.slideshare.net/dickieaguado/blink-the-power-of-thinking-without-thinking-by-malcolm-gladwell-11525711 Neocritic. Riots in St. Louis over Police Killing of African-American Teenager. Political Munchie, com., Aug. 2014. Retrieved 29 May from: http://politicalmunchie.com/2014/08/14/riots-in-saint-louis-over-police-killing-of-african-american-teenager/ Reuters. St. Louis Braces for More Protests after Policeman Kills Another Black Teenager. 09 Oct. 2014. Retrieved 29 May from: http://www.dw.de/st-louis-braces-for-more-protests-after-policeman-kills-another-black-teenager/a-17985479 Read More