The Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell

Arguably, human beings face cognitive association in their daily life. This occurs in the different spheres of life spanning from personal relations to different encounters that man has. The different associations we have been found to be instrumental in shaping up man’s thoughts, as well as behavior and cognitions. Both behavior and cognition are two important aspects of social psychology, which discusses the human behavior in the various social settings. These researchers established that man has different characters that are influenced by the presence of other individuals. Furthermore, the characters are dependent on one’s social influence, the social perception and the various social relationships. In most times, character develops through the entire life, and each situation comes with a lesson. Family, friends and peers, among others, are external forces that shape a person’s character. However, in the article “The Power of Context,” Malcom Gladwell argues that the environment influences peoples’ characters as well. Gladwell reviews aspects of people’s behavior development, how and what shapes their character. In this essay, Gladwell communicates his arguments of the effects of cognitive associations and physical surroundings on the behavior of a person through the analysis of psychological and social experiments. He specifically describes the epidemic theory and notes that it explains why crime is contagious just like the different fashion trends. This means that crime

In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context,” includes a series of short anecdotes in which are all defined by environment and how society shapes mankind. While reading these short stories Gladwell put into the novel, the audience can conclude that the rules of society have the power to shape a person or community. When reading “The Power of Context,” the reader must be able to grasp the understanding of how environment can affect an individual. One would say nature is the setting in which a person is brought up, nurture is the care variable one has the power to influence how they behave or how the setting can define who they are. In this style of writing Gladwell uses, shifts in societies behaviors tell stories of how the setting can influence behaviors of the main characters.

In the article “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Malcolm Gladwell, he argues that the use of social media to start a revolution doesn’t help the cause to be as big or impactful than it could be. He explains the connection between social media with “weak-ties” versus “strong-ties.” In relation with these “ties,” throughout the article Gladwell goes back and forth from discussing the successful approaches of the Civil Rights Movement and their strategies for their cause without the use of social media, to how ineffective other various organizations in the past and present turned to social media to try their cause.

Criminal case is always tedious when it involves little or no information about the offender, like in the 9/11 terrorist attack which annihilated most of the workers in and damaged the New York Trade Center building. However, in an attempt to identify the offenders, government officials and investigators try out different ways such as criminal profiling and others. Thus, in the New Yorker article, “Dangerous Minds” by Malcolm Gladwell; the author informs the deeper problems with FBI profiling and argues that it is ineffective. He questions the usefulness of criminal profiling, “But how useful is that profile, really?” and uses other criminal cases, group research analyses, and analogies to refute

No individual can arrive at the threshold of his potentialities without a culture in which he participates. Conversely, no civilization has in it any element that the last analysis is not the contribution of an individual. Where else could any trait come from except from the behaviour of a man or a woman or a child? (253)

Since the inception of human civilization there have been countless cultures and societies which have helped shape the current world today as we know it. The modern human race dates back more than 200,000 years and in that time frame many cultures have risen to great virtue and success only to deteriorate or cease to exist altogether. First before examining one of these cultures we must know what culture truly means. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Culture Center defines culture as a “dynamic social system,” containing the beliefs, behaviors, values and norms of a “specific organization, group, society or other collectivity” learned, shared, internalized, and changeable by all members of the society (Watson, 2010). In

The promise of change is empty; he cares only about change itself…The so-called realities of the social world around him matter little, for he dances to an internal rhythm, answering a call for self-authentication that springs from a cultural, even cosmological, dimension.” (Pereira 38)

Some believe crime is committed due to poverty or desperation, others believe its committed in view of envy, and on the other hand, Gladwell believes crime is committed due to the surroundings of an individual. In ‘The Power of Context,’ Gladwell discusses the occurrence of crime in New York, stating that its major cause is the immediate environment one is in. Gladwell believes that the environment we’re in has a major effect on our behavior and eventually it makes us act according to it. Gladwell goes to great measures to prove his point, stating number of examples, including a number of major theories. However, is the environment really the only determinant of our actions? Gladwell tries to convince the audience that in the end it is the surroundings of an individual and the small things that matter. Trying to convince the audience and make them agree with him, Gladwell uses some big concepts and examples of crime in New York to prove to his audience that in the end, it actually is the small things or the ‘Tipping Points’ that make a completely normal human being commit a crime.

Campbell, Angus, and Phillip E. Converse. 1972. The Human Meaning of Social Change. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. UTSA Databaseshttps://ucat.lib.utsa.edu /vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId= 181794/ (accessed February 20, 2013).

I chose this scene because it puts emphasis on the importance of cultural legacy, and how these cultural legacies can either hinder or facilitates us at what we do. These are not innate characteristics. They are legacies of the cultures we are born into, and heavily influence the way we think and behave. Take Klotz for example. His plane is about crash, but he is trapped in his role as a subordinate. His failure to communicate with his captain is not through any fault of his own but of his hierarchical background. He is obligated to be respectful towards his superiors in a way that is not expected of people in America. This scene also helps conveys Gladwell’s idea that we have to go back much further than looking at an example of one person

The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.

Several factors affect the formation of one’s culture, Palispis, E. (2007) quoted Sir Edward Tylor, “Culture… refers to that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society.” (Palispis, E., 2007) In this context culture is something we acquire from the people we have lived with since we were born, it is not something a person can learn overnight nor can be disposed effortlessly.

For the most part humans are all born in the same fashion, they have opposable thumbs, a pair of hands, a pair of legs, a brain, and a heart. Looks can be deceiving however, not all infants are created equal. Statistically speaking, the overwhelming majority of the seven billion humans on earth will pass away as a member of the same socioeconomic class they began. In fact, society predicates itself on living a better life than their family who came before. Society takes part in a never ending race to further itself on a socioeconomic level from the generation before knowing full well that the majority will not achieve such goal. That in itself is a testament to how difficult the task of altering identity is. Malcolm Gladwell’s Power of Context echoes many of the same progressive principles preached in the early twentieth century, he believes external factors such as the aspects of environment are the greatest determinants of identity. Barbara Fredrickson argues in her book Love 2.0, that change comes from within. Frederickson believes that biochemical alterations of the human body can occur by increasing “loving potential” (119). An increase of such potential has a profoundly positive impact on human health . As nice as it may sound Fredrickson 's theory leaves her readers with far more questions than answers and in fact plays more into the hands of Gladwell’s “power of context”. Fredrickson offers vague descriptions and uses contradictory language in regards to

In all cultures it is easy to see the effects of change. Change can be a revolution, a new form of thought, or a new idea surfacing. No matter what these changes are, they often emerge from the minority. In several cases this results an uprising, turning the social system on end. Simple examples of this type of change can be seen in the French or American revolutions, and even in the hippie movement of the 1960's. These changes depict how an idea shared only by a select few can snowball into the mindset of thousands. Within A Doll's House and An Enemy of the People, Henrick Ibsen shows his standpoint on the benefits of social change, and

This work will analyse and consider the cultural environment in which we are all subjected to in today’s society. Culture doesn’t have just one meaning, they vary depending on where you live, how you live, how you been taught, religion, language and many others. These are just some of the factors of that create the diversification of specific types of culture, that we all have to adapt too even if you look at individualism and collectivism. Businesses of today, also have to change the way they operate, to suit and operate effectively depending on where they want to situate themselves, otherwise problems could arise