Cognitive Dissonance In Cry Freedom

Conformity: Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. In the movie, when Judy said that she though that the predator’s attacks were due to genetics, everyone conformed to this idea. The prey started to separate themselves from the prey and conform to this idea.

The movie Crash, a film that follows the individual lives of several people and how they all intertwine with one another, hints at the underlying issue of race and the unconscious bias that are hard wired in us. It also shows that racism is not a one way street, but that it travels in both directions and because of this many film critics gave it a high praise. In this paper I will examine how it relates back to the topics we have covered in class, like unconscious bias, racism, and police interactions.

Merriam Webster defines conformity as- “action in accordance with some specified standard or authority”. As it is a type of influence that involves change in belief or behavior in order to fit into a group. Where in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, conformity is a matter of life or death. In the novel and in life, conformity is viewed as an easy way to shape into society's mold. Societal expectations are shaped by the so called “Combine” a mysterious and in the dark figure that is view as the puppeteer of the way society functions. In the Novel, Chief Bromden a long time patient at a psychiatric ward is the first to recognize the Combine and its powers. At the same time that this novel was written, the society of the 1950s was being challenged by a group known as the beat generation who wanted to reject and challenge the stringent norms that the majority deemed as appropriate and necessary. While many members of society supported the beliefs of conformity, in many ways the need for “societal-misfits” was vital to secure a community where all people would have a voice. While many did their best to challenge the Combine, in the end the Combine would prevail, but the ideas of those who spoke out would resonate with others. The Combine is an unstoppable force fueled by conformity, but Ken Kesey explains that the only way for progress in the novel (and society) is for a McMurphy type of character to challenge the Combine.

The movie “Crash”, by Director and Writer Paul Haggis, follows 8 ethnically diverse families/ individuals facing the struggle of modern day racism and stereotypes created and faced in modern Los Angeles, California. These individuals take the roles of individuals living their daily lives within Los Angeles, California while facing stereotypes. The cast portrays: 2 caucasian white male police officers, an African American director and his wife, a white district attorney and his wife, a Persian immigrant family, and a Hispanic father whose occupation is a locksmith. The scene chosen from this film involves the police officers (Officer Ryan and Officer Hanson) pulling over the African American Director (Cameron Thayer) and his wife (Christine Thayer) at a traffic stop. This scene establishes two different types of theoretic sociological concepts of Thomas Theorem and cognitive dissonance.

The term racial prejudice is defined as having a negative belief that is unfairly applied to all individuals of an ethnic group even if such individuals have different characteristics as in personality, appearance, and perspective. In society, many individuals believe that racial prejudice only focuses on one particular social group, whereas others view racial prejudice pertaining to all races. However, racial prejudice is without a doubt a phenomenon, one that isn 't specific to one ethnic or social group, instead prevalent in all groups of people that affect or are affected by the institution of racism. Different associations and relationships play a vital role in how we perceive others, at times people view others through the lens of racial prejudice. Crash, a movie directed by (put director 's name), shows different ethnic groups that face challenges within their lives as they clash into one another by certain situations. In addition, Crash itself also focuses on many racial prejudices that occur in society. The film Crash highlights the very notion that racial prejudice is experienced by many groups because various ethnic groups are constantly violated for having different physical appearances; mocked for having a different culture, and excluded from opportunities within society’s social structure.

After reading chapter five I noticed cognitive dissonance throughout a large portion of the book. Cognitive dissonance was described in class as being a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. A good example of this was found on page 182 where the author writes about how we all tell our self that African Americans “deserve” all of this even though we know, but do not want to acknowledge that white Americans are less likely to be convicted of the same crime done by blacks. Cognitive dissonance applies here because we know that this mass incarceration is not fair or morally right to do, however, our behavior does not try to stop it from happening. Instead of doing what our beliefs say is right we try to convince ourselves that it is the African Americans fault that they are

An example that we can see of this theme is the conflict of the Tom Robinson case. Being black played a part in everyone thinking that he could have been the one who raped and hit Mayella. When the Town's people hear that Tom will be defended by Atticus they become infuriated “ Your father's no better than the niggers trash he works for !”(135) , this shows how the town has turned against Atticus because he will be defending Tom Robinson a black colored skin person. In addition to the adults dissing on the fact that Atticus will be defending a black the town's kids are also dissing about it when Cecil Jacobs tells Scout, “ My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an’ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank!”(102). The town of Maycomb has turned against Atticus for defending Tom, who has been accused of raping and hitting a white

In addition to this concept, Juror #10 shows that past experiences and person bias influence the thoughts and opinions of a person. Juror 10 segregates and divides people stereotypically into “us” being him and the middle class and with “them” being the people of the slums, a different race, or a different upbringing. As a result of these thoughts, Juror 10 was bias towards the young Puerto Rican man on trial because the young man was born in the slums, had a difficult childhood, and a troubled past. Since the boy was Puerto Rican, a different race from Juror 10, Juror 10 consistently antagonizes the boy because it fits his description of “them”. “Look these people are drinking and fighting all the time, and if somebody gets killed…they’re

In the movie Crash there were a lot of ways prejudice, discrimination, and sociological concepts were used. Being prejudice is when you have negative thoughts towards other groups that are different from you. Being prejudice involves attitude, thoughts, and beliefs not actions. Discrimination is usually based on race, age, or sex and people are treated differently because of this.

Prejudice is a topic of interest to social psychologists and society as a whole. Prejudice can be defined as ‘an attitude that predisposes a person to think, feel, perceive and act in a favourable or unfavourable way towards a group or its individual members’ (Secord and Backman, 1974, p). Prejudice is often the cause of negative behaviour such as bullying and aggression. Discrimination such as; racism, ageism, sexism, nationalism, classism may occur as a result. Jane Elliot’s study: A Class Divided (1968) attempts to highlight prejudicial behaviour in children. Elliot divided her class into groups of eye colour. She told the children that blue eye colour defined people to be more intelligent and superior to those with brown eyes.

Prejudices are the strong backbone to the concept of racism. They are the labels and images that we designate to a group of people on the basis of what we imagine to be the characteristics of all members of that group. More often than not, they are incorrect and incomplete. The film Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, addresses the strong existence of prejudices against many groups from various perspectives in today 's society.

Andrew Vachss--an American crime author, child protection consultant, and minority youth lawyer--once said, “All children are born pure egoists. They perceive their needs to the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied” (Vachss). Vachss’ view that inequalities and prejudice are in fact learned behaviors is supported by analysis of the agents of socialization--the groups that “transmit their values, behavior patterns, and understandings of their social world to a person” (Farley 31). The socialization of an individual is a continuing process where one must learn the norms, behaviors, values, and social skills according to his or her given social position (31). The agents of socialization--specifically family, school, and media--are responsible for the perpetuation of discrimination in society; not only do they highlight the differences between people, but they also create normative-mainstream ideals and exclude those who are inherently different.

Cognitive dissonance impacts attitudes and behavior negatively in the workplace in a variety of ways depending on the position you are employed. Being in management as an administrator you are faced with many challenges and situations that cause cognitive dissonance. For example, if my director asks me to perform a task and the way in which he wants me to perform the task, goes against my beliefs, I am forced to decide whether to follow his directives or risk termination for insubordination. The stress factor is making the correct decision. I can remember an instructor sending a student to me for conduct issues and wanted the student terminated from her program. The documentation that she provided to me was not sufficient to suspend the student,

All together, Parameswaran’s article is well-researched as she refers to a variety of sources as she transitions from one topic to the next. She cites information from many different sources to support her overall stance but sometimes uses too many quotations. Although there is not a rule about how many sources one should use in their academic writing, one can argue that Parameswaran’s article is mostly composed of source information, rather than composing her stance with her own voice. Because the use of sources is overpowering, her writing becomes overwhelming for readers because they are not getting the author’s point of view on the issue. Parameswaran states that as students learn about issues of discrimination, they begin to reexamine their values. At times, the reexamination leads students who belong to dominant groups to feel guilty and accuse people who belong to underrepresented groups of “reverse racism” (qtd. in Parameswaran 5). An example of a source Parameswaran overuses is information from Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, a psychologist and author who focuses on race in education, and expands on reverse racism. Tautm’s book discusses how students learn about Whites who were and/or are racists. Parameswaran reiterates Tatum’s ideas by stating that most students can name people who hold racist values, but cannot recall any White individuals who fought against racial prejudice. According to Tatum, this is one reason that White

Leon Festinger created the cognitive dissonance theory as an attempt to explain why people desire to have consistency between their behaviors and actions. Cognitive dissonance is the distressing mental state people feel when they find themselves doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold (Festinger, 1957; as cited in Griffin, 2009). Thus, people are motivated to change either their behavior or their belief when feelings of dissonance arise.