...though everyone’s social lives look different, most people fear isolation and search for their social identity. The Social Identity Theory unpacks the process of gaining one’s social identity and explains the competitive trends between social groups. This paper will first give an in-depth summary of SIT that will be later applied to a movie example that connects directly to the theory. Lastly, I will share my interpretations of the movie and the Social Identity Theory through the lens of my application process. Summary of Social Identity Theory The Social Identity Theory is formed around people’s association with their social groups. A social group is defined as...
Words: 1572 - Pages: 7
...American identity. In Okita's poem, American identity has more to do with how you experience culture than with where your family came from. Both Okita's poem and Cisneros's short story show that cultural heritage and physical appearances do not determine what it means to be American. In response to "Mericans", the first sign of American identity that is noticed by this short story is the classification of relatives in the style of traditional American names such as "Auntie" and "Uncle". The next thing that is noticeable relates to the young American identity, regarding childhood. As part of the American culture a couple of ideas that could be experienced in childhood that the narrator tries to avoid being a victim of. For example, the grandmother prays for family members. The narrator imagines that the grandmother is worried because many of her children and grandchildren live in "that barbaric country with its barbaric ways". This refers to the grandmother's dislike of the United States, which contrast with the narrator's view. Despite her Mexican heritage, the narrator feels a stronger connection to the United States than to Mexico. By stating that "We have promised to stay right where the awful grandmother left us until she returns". In this short story, the biggest topic that relates to the American identity is how young boys and girls are playing together and the girls are constantly agonized and picked on for the fact of being a "girl". To the...
Words: 639 - Pages: 3
...society’ (30 marks) Girls have rapidly improved, compared to boys, in terms of educational achievement, as Item A states, since the 1980’s. In Key Stages 1-3, girls consistently do better than boys in writing subjects such as English; at GCSE, girls are 10 percentage more likely than boys to achieve five or more A*-C grades; at AS/A-level, girls are more likely to get higher grades. Additionally, at each stage of a pupil’s education, the gap gets narrower. Therefore, more girls go into higher education. However, this is not the case for boys as there are in changes in the both the education system and wider society. As item A suggests, there are many external factors resulting in gender differences in educational achievement. One factor is the impact of Feminism. Since the 1960’s, feminists have challenged patriarchy by creating the ‘Feminist Movement’. This has help to improve the rights of women, as well as raise expectations and the self-esteem of women. Although many would agree that true equality with males has not yet been achieved, women have now started to reject the traditional stereotypes of women such as the ‘mother and housewife role’. For example, in McRobbie’s study of girls’ magazines shows how girls view of themselves have changed. She found that in the 1970’s, girls emphasised the importance of getting married and being ‘left on the shelf’. However, nowadays, they contain images of assertive, independent women such as Oprah Winfrey. As a result, girls are motivated...
Words: 1592 - Pages: 7
... The Pressure of Conformity Throughout history, society's conception of women and their attributed behavior has changed quite frequently. Popular culture enforces idealistic views, pressuring girls to conform into stereotyped portrayals of the female gender. Seduced by these commonly approved ideals of beauty, many adolescents struggle to fit in with the "cool crowd". Mentally tormented by loss or confusion of personal identity, female teenagers strongly desire the feeling of belonging to a certain group of friends. This usually harmless concept of peer pressure can lead to a teenagers demise, by ultimately including hazardous actions, such as drug and alcohol misuse, teen sex, and even criminal conduct. This dangerous clash of adolescent inexperience and youthful yearning for adventure and danger is portrayed in the two teen movie "Thirteen" and "Mean Girls". Cady and Tracy, the protagonists from these socially critiquing movies, both deteriorate to the prevalent teen royalties, hence destroying relationships with true friends and family. Thirteen year old Tracy is an exceptional student, gets along with her family and has never been in any sort of trouble before. Although living a fulfilled life, the young girl desires to be friends with Evie, one of the cool girls at school. The urge to fit in and to experience the exhilarating lifestyle Evie seems to lead, Tracy blindly follows and familiarizes with boys, alcohol and even drugs. All these attractions and new ambivalent...
Words: 992 - Pages: 4
...Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris focuses on the experiences of Black girls in the American education system and how systemic racism and discrimination has often criminalized their existence and fundamental right to an education. Pushout: The Criminalization of...
Words: 716 - Pages: 3
...iconic line of “who are you?” is a heavy question of identity. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, identity is defined as “the condition of being the same with something described or asserted;” identity is purely derived from comparing two subjects. Attempting to describe one's self through comparisons is a difficult task; as no two people are identical. As shown through Alice in Wonderland, language cannot effectively describe an individual's identity. Alice’s identity is questioned and doubted, especially with the physical changes she experiences throughout the book. At the beginning of the story, Alice is an aloof schoolgirl who often acts without thinking of the consequences. This lack of foresight leads Alice into situations where she becomes uncertain of her own identity. Alice falls down the rabbit hole, “never once considering how in the world she was to get out again (Carroll 16).” Alice is confident in...
Words: 1194 - Pages: 5
...Alexandria Armenta * Literature is counterbalanced. * Identity is essential. * Affectation becomes desirable. I chose the theme “Literature is counterbalanced” because the passion and appreciation the narrator has for literature is counterbalanced by bitter disappointment. I chose literature as the first word because literature is the one of the main focuses of the story and it is the reason why this competition of winning a chance with a writer is brought up. I also chose counterbalanced to emphasize the fact that his love for literature is weighted out at the end of the story by disappointment when he is caught for plagiarizing. The students compete with one another, using their knowledge and their pens to win the admiration of their teachers, publication in Troubadour, and fundamentally, an audience with their favorite writer. The narrator plagiarizes a girl’s story and submits it as his own work to win the opportunity to work with an American novelist and short story writer, Ernest Hemingway. Although Hemingway is shown to be all male, he can’t seem to discover the fact that the story was written by a girl. The story is about a girl who is hiding her Jewish identity to be present at a country club party; however, the narrator changed the protagonist from a girl to a boy. Unfortunately, this act leads to events that have an effect on a few of the characters mentioned throughout the novel. The narrator is soon caught and the lies he has told are resulted in him...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
..."Response to Executive order 9066" and "Mericas" were written by authors who were inspired by foreign and America culture. Sandra Cisneros and Dwight Okita communicated the topic of American identity through their stories. American identity is being apart of the American culture by sharing the same values, beliefs, etc. Okita's poem and Cisneros story both show that coming from a different cultural background, and the way you look does not define what being an American is. " Merica " by Sandra Cisneros is about a young girl who in between the old and the new side of her Mexican culture. Micaela shows in various ways how shes dislikes her grandmother, and how different their views are in general. The grandmother prays at La Divina Providencia an old Mexican church for her family members who live in the United States. She refers it as " that barbaric country and its barbaric ways ". Her dislike for the united states differs from the way Micaela feels about it. While she feels a stronger connection moreover to the U.S. rather then she does Mexico. Another strong form of American identity in the short story was when Micaela and her brothers were playing a game, but she would constantly get picked on for being a girl. Young girls feel as if they need to prove themselves to the boys to be treated equally. Although Micaela identify's her self as being an American some tourist think other wise based on the...
Words: 575 - Pages: 3
...Simon Adelle UCOR 102 Paper 3 Professor Marcum Making It in A Man’s World April 29, 2013 “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros exposes the life of the main character, Esperanza, for one year as she struggles with trying to find her place in America as a Chicana young girl while also coming of age. The novel starts the day Esperanza and her family of six move into a house on Mango Street, and immediately she expresses her antipathy for not only the house, but also for the area in which they move into and the people around who judge them because of their ethnicity. The story is not told in the traditional format of a continuous story divided into chapters, but rather Cisneros uses forty-four vignettes to allow for the reader to fully understand why Esperanza has the struggles that she has. Along with Cisneros’ illustrating Esperanza’s looking for her identity through images of Esperanza’s thoughts and female obedience, symbolism of violence, legs, the Statue for Liberty, and Nenny, and diction of Spanish words, not using quotation marks, and a maturing tone, she also uses these them to permeate Esperanza’s desperation to leave Mango Street throughout the whole novel. Cisneros’ use of vignettes highlights important moments in Esperanza’s life that emphasize how she develops over the course of a year. Cisneros uses the brevity of the vignettes to enhance the imagery to give the most vivid image through her limited amount of words for...
Words: 3794 - Pages: 16
...starts to understand her/his identity beyond the family, role that each one in the society assumes, through friends, teachers in school and most importantly books that they read in class room. A child's understanding of gender specific role gets almost fixed when schooling starts and get re-enforced every day by the behaviors towards them by the teachers, staff, member of the school. They start being actor of the patriarchal system and carry it along much after they have left school. School's ideological stance shapes up the stances of the children. The way children would look at gender relation and role, caste, class, history, etc are depended on how the schools look at these issues. The teachers at the school despite of being a separate identity outside school carry the same ideology of the school within the schools premises. So if a teacher is very caste biased then the children tent to see caste very differently, if a certain teacher has strong and traditional notion towards girls then the students' starts learning them and inculcating them in their life. But what is important is to see what influences the teachers to be what she / he are within the school when she/he might be a totally different person outside the school. The teacher is the figure of authority within the classroom. They have the power to create and control the environment in which the children exist – for good or bad. Not surprisingly, their influence on children’s gender identities should not be underestimated...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
...Dissociative Identity Disorder: Abstract: The aim of this paper is to elucidate an in depth understanding of the phenomena of dissociative identity disorder. This piece was written while I was pursuing my certification in counseling and volunteering with social organizations dealing with specially abled individuals. The explanation delineated below seeks to bring out my understanding and perception of the subject. Meaning: Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis explaining a condition whereby a person subconsciously exhibits multiple identities i.e. alter egos each distinct from the other behaving in its own manner independently from the others. It is necessary for atleast two personalities to take over a person for this disorder to occur. A person also has memory loss while he/she exhibits some other personality. This clearly means that a person is subconsciously getting a person into different personalities. Dissociative Identity Disorder is less common when compared to other dissociative disorders and occurs in about 1% of the dissociative cases. There have been many instances where the existence of dissociative identity disorder has been questioned. It is pertinent to note that dissociative identity disorder is diagnosed more commonly in North America in comparison to other areas of the world. Signs and symptoms: Patients who have been diagnosed with this disorder exhibit a lot of fluctuation in behavior and at times also show strange mannerisms. The main...
Words: 872 - Pages: 4
...Alicia A. Smith October 29, 2014 Eng.4705/Essay #2 Beauty Complex The word beauty has many negative connotations for African American women. Over the years African American women have been subjected, misrepresented and also dehumanized by the exemplification of beauty and identity. This pattern of internalizing the perception of beauty to coincide with European standards have caused many African American women in the process to alter their physical appearances and personify a culture that has disregarded the uniqueness of being “ black and beautiful”. The cultural aesthetics of being “black and beautiful” has been distorted in literature, movies and television shows to appease an acceptable standard of beauty that in reality is unrealistic....
Words: 1008 - Pages: 5
...Two passages,two different views, and two girls that explain how they are American. Authors from both passages explain what it means to be American. Within these two passages there are similarities and differences. Both passages have a common them which would be American identity. Each other describes their opinions on what it means to be American. In the passage "Response to Executive Order 9066" it is about a girl that has to move back to Japan because some of her descents are Japanese. The author explains how the government judges people based on their heritage. Okita the main character in the passage is having to move back to Japan because of her descents. So the government is judging Okita based on her heritage. However, Okita says she is American. For example, she says she has "always felt funny using chopsticks" also her "favorite food is hot dogs" which is an American food. Though "Response to Executive Order 9066" has several reasons on what they imagine being American meant as well as the other passage called "Mericans"....
Words: 507 - Pages: 3
...the ways that males and females are brought up in society? (Nature vs. Nurture) SEX AND GENDER • Sex: (whether someone is male or female) refers to the natural or biological differences between men and women, such as difference in genitals, internal reproductive organs, and body hair. • Gender: (whether someone is masculine or feminine) refers to the cultural, socially constructed differences between the two sexes. It refers to the way a society encourages and teaches the two sexes to behave in different ways through socialization. • Gender role: is the pattern of behavior and activity which society expects from individuals of either sex – how a boy/man or girl/woman should behave in society. Gender roles may sometimes be referred to as sex roles. • Gender identity: refers to how much people see themselves, and others see them, in terms of their gender roles and biological sex. The differences between the terms 'sex' and 'gender' is best illustrated by the case of transsexuals: people who biologically belong to...
Words: 8069 - Pages: 33
...is mostly about how the speaker view her identity. The purpose of this poem is to show that the speaker’s belief in herself. The first sentence, “This morning I met myself coming in” means that as the girl wakes up, she recognizes who she is and then she describes herself. There are metaphors used in the second stanza, the sentence “a bright jungle girl shining” represents an image of a girl who is very active. This metaphor also describes things in nature, it shows that the speaker see herself as an unique, and special. “This Morning” it’s a metaphor for the present time, is that she found herself or appreciates herself. In the last stanza, it says “And all day I have been a black bell ringing I survive, survive, survive.” it means, out of all the things that she has been through, now she has finally got through her problems and found the person she truly is, in Lucille Clifton’s case, it means she found where she stood in the society as an African - American. The speaker kept repeating “I met myself” in line 3 and line 12 to show that she survives from her problems. A simile is a figure of speech that expresses he resemblance of one thing to another of a different category, usually introduced by as or like. There’s a simile used in the second stanza, “shining quick as a snake.” So in this sentence, the speaker is seeing herself as mysterious, swift, or even energetic person. Also the words such as “a me girl” in line 2-4, means how the speaker sees herself, she see herself...
Words: 484 - Pages: 2
