Theories Of Belonging

In his often cited essay, “The Formation of In-Groups,” Gordon Allport offers his theory on how the groups with which one identifies directly influence the development of one’s individual identity. An “in-group” is a group where members share common traits such as societal status, religion, values or sexual orientation. All the members are alike in some way and that similarity unites them as a group. Allport suggests that one belongs to many in-groups throughout his or her lifetime. Individuals are born into some in-groups, such as one’s family, race or socio-economic level; this Allport terms as an “ascribed status”. People also obtain “achieved status” in a group such as one’s circle

Belonging means different things to different people. The most common definition is feeling a sense of connectedness to a person, place or thing. Understanding nourishes belonging while a lack of understanding can prevent people from belonging. This is shown through Peter Skrzynecki’s poem ‘Migrant hostel’ which is about the challenges faced by travelers on their journey, and the hardships they have to overcome by exchanging their old world for the unfamiliar and unwelcoming new world in which they don’t understand anything. Skrzynecki’s poem ‘Feliks Skryznecki’ explores a relationship between father and son, and their contrasting experiences of belonging to a new place. The related text, ‘The Red Tree,’ by Shaun Tan also shows that a lack

It is a well-known fact that belonging to a group can make an individual feel not only accepted, but more powerful that if they were on their own. Whether it is a community, youth group or even religion, belonging is an everyday occurrence of like that many of us do not even realise. Belonging to a group is more influential than belonging to an individual. We can see this in the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller, 1984 by George Orwell and the listening task. Belonging to a group can give you a feeling of acceptance, but also can help you not to be targeted or marginalised. Also, people who appear to belong to groups, when looked at closer, in truth do not belong. Belonging to a group can also give you more power as a

Write down the website. Give a brief description of the relevance of this site to your study

Explore how this is evident in you prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing.

Have you ever felt left out or thought that you didn’t belong? Well I am here to tell you that everyone needs to belong. I think that people need to belong because without people belonging what is the point for the human race. Belonging isn’t just about being with a group but happiness and love. One might argue that many people are isolated and do not belong and are happy with that, but they just belong to a smaller group or just a single person. People need to belong and no matter what people will always belong in one way or another.

“We belong … like fish in water. We’re in our environment.” This quote from the New York Times shows the perception of belonging as the idea about connecting to a place, person, group or a community. 'Feliks Skrzynecki' by Peter Skrzynecki, 'I'm nobody! Who are you?' by Emily Dickinson and 'The Rabbits' by John Marsden & Shaun Tan show the concept of belonging as being contrasted towards the New York Times quote, showing the alienation and non-existent connection towards it. These texts have furthered my understanding on the perceptions of belonging by recognising the different concepts of connection to people, places and things.

‘An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging.” Discuss this view with detailed reference ( 2010 HSC Question)

The concept of belonging deals with not only acceptance but also with dejection and alienation. This concept can influence our belonging to a relationship or place by our background and culture. These ideas are explored through Shakespeare’s play “As You Like IT”, the poem “Villane on a Theme” by George Good and the film “Remember the Titans” directed by Boaz Yakin. By analysing the texts in relation to belonging we see a variety of perceptions to belonging in the means of relationships, family and place. The different contexts in which each text is written explore slightly different ideas that together broaden our understanding on the complexity that is belonging.109

The majority of belonging research at the college level has focused on the campus community and promoting belongingness among minority students (Strayhorn 2010; Strayhorn & Saddler 2009; Walton & Cohen 2011). From an academic and social view, belonging can be defined as a feeling of college belonging, college identity, connectedness, and intellectual competence. These are moments that do not always occur in the classroom. It can happen anywhere a student makes contact with other students and faculty to become involved in opportunities for engagement and learn success strategies (Hughes, Karp, & O’Gara, 2009). A sense of belonging also involves one’s personal belief that one is an accepted member of an academic community whose presence

In a society where individuals can freely do things, that still abide to laws, things can get out of place. Of course there will be a small cluster of those who decide that the law may not always be right. From that cluster, there is a majority who disobey laws in a harsh manner, and the minority who do it peacefully. The question is, how does it impact our society? The truth is, disobeying anything can give people negative connotations. If you peacefully resist, the punishment might not be as hard then if you resist with frustration. However, there are cases where they broke the law, but they did it 'for the people'. An example of this Robin Hood, is a guy named Edward Snowden. He showed us information that the government themselves, were

The need to belong in an integral part of the human psyche. All people, on some level, desire to feel a sense of belonging that will emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. Belonging cannot be achieved without an understanding of oneself and their surroundings.

Sense of belonging is essential to be successful in school. Accordingly, sense of relatedness is considered as a resource for motivation in learning process. A strong sense of belonging has positive impact on students’ self-efficacy which eventually affects school performance. This study aims to investigate the influence of sense of belonging on students’ academic performance in the sixth grade. The present study focused on the impact of feelings of relatedness or connectedness to specific social partners such as teachers, parents, and friends. The sample of this study is composed of 200 students attending sixth grade of a primary school in Saudi Arabia. The study was carried out over two weeks. The result revealed that there is a significant

The struggle to belong and find one’s place is significant in the lives of some people.

According to Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929) from the Chicago School of sociology, in his book Social organization: A Study of the Larger Mind (1909) indicated that primary groups play an important role in the development of personal identity. A primary group is typically a small social group. They often concern onpersonal orientation. Primary relationship involvestrong emotionaland their relationship is enduring between each other and it is irreplaceable. For example loving, caring, and assisting of financial. The goal of primary groups is actually the relationships themselves rather than achieving