Free «Portfolio Social Psychology» Essay Sample
When children commit crimes, the intention of the social psychologists is to define what the driving factors are. They want to identify their background, environment and social economic status. These are efforts aimed to establish whether the social patterns and impacts are related to the crime that a child has perpetrated. Studies suggest that within the age group from 12 and 14 years, the crimes committed are largely influenced by morals and environment. As an illustration, the following example can be provided: two girls are accused of plotting to kill their classmate in order pay homage to a fictional character who they believed was real. Morgan Geyser was reported to have read about him on a website designed for horror stories. Over time, as the parents teach their children, they should learn to experience their emotions and figure out ways to solve problems through their feelings.
Further, social surroundings shape how people behave and express their attitudes (Myers, 2012). The Waukesha crimes raise concerns such as whether parents talk to their children about fictional characters so that they do not commit violent crimes. It is not enough to teach the children that certain actions are not acceptable, but also there is a need to prepare them for challenges in the world. For instance, if the two girls were prepared for such challenges, probably, they would have differentiated between facts and fictions. They would not have stabbed their friend as a way to expressing the horror images of the Slender Man. The tragedy at the birthday party appears to be an example of how cyber world can lead to violence in the real life (Myers, 2012). In addition, the Cambridge study found that there is an interesting identifier among the children who commit crimes regularly. It is mostly related to weakness of morals. Besides, there is an increasing concern regarding the parental guidance. Most kids may be fearful of being caught or facing severe punishment for their actions. However, most of these children also understand the difference between right and wrong.
In addition, experiments show that people use the fundamental attribution error even when they are aware of the situational factors surrounding it. This error can provide more information on how people’s attributions predict their behavior and attitude (Myers, 2012). Having knowledge on this information is beneficial to see other hidden attributes that were not taken into account. It is useful in understanding how to change other’s perspective by understanding why they think in certain ways. In addition, there is interplay between our social surroundings and self- presentation (Myers, 2012). For instance, the above-mentioned story vividly demonstrates this statement. Two girls stabbed their friend during a birthday party, and one of them was reported to have painted of the Slender Man, a fictional internet character, a few weeks earlier. She developed some of obsession that made her to explore it as fantasy, yet in reality, she was committing a crime and is charged of the attempted murder. The accused girls admitted that after stabbing their classmate, they dragged her out of the birthday party while she was still bleeding. These are part of problems arising from the social surroundings.
Young children have uncontrolled access to the Internet because some of the sites and pictures appear to be entertaining for them, while practically they are creating a problem of social isolation. As a result, there is unpleasant truth lying in each of them: there is a dark part that can become the seat of evil. As such, the dark side may come out due to the simple ignorance, but it can result in unpredictable and dangerous outcomes. For instance, although the above-mentioned girls are accused of killing their friend, they do not show signs of remorse. Shockingly, they extended such an inhumane act by dragging the victim out into the bushes while bleeding and left her to die. These actions demonstrate that some mind processes can occur outside our awareness and create the need for parents and guardians to control the Internet access for the children They should be ensured that not all things they encounter in the web are reliable and express the realistic view of the world. Therefore, if the children decide to act on what they see, their actions will have consequences.
In world’s communities and families, it is critical to look out for each other in attempts to strengthen and deepen the “good part” of another person, because there is a great risk to take delusions too seriously. In addition, adults need to understand that the minds of their children are developing in phases. Thus, the parent could understand the needs of their children, and the possible problems they can face and the ways o their solution. Most importantly, the focus should not be made at oppressing the “bad part” a person. This kind of control will give people the impetus to understand social and behavioral situations they are not very good at.
Conclusively, social psychology plays an important role in analyzing the reasons as to why people behave differently in some situations. The social surroundings such as the internet, family and government impact on people’s self-presentation, force them to make certain decisions and form certain character traits. Sometimes is dangerous to fall under the fall of these institutes, as the outcomes may be unpredictable. Social psychology, on its part, should form the possible solutions and variants of behavior, predict the consequents of certain events and help people adapt to modern realities.