Experiential Knowledge versus Intellectual Knowledge Essay Example for Free

Experiential Knowledge versus Intellectual Knowledge Essay The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has for a long time stirred the issue on the tug between experiential knowledge (the sort of knowledge that is gained in the â€Å"streets† and practiced mostly by Huck) and intellectual knowledge (the kind of knowledge being taught in schools and by people like Widow Douglas and Miss Watson). The issue can most of the time be phrased as that between being logical and following the practical consequences of one’s logic as opposed to following the dictates of society. This is a theme that was developed early on in the book and extends up to the end. Huck, for example, defies society and chooses his own logic in Chapter 1 when he told Widow Douglas that he would prefer to go to hell since this would mean a change of scenery and being with Tom. It is known for a fact that â€Å"heaven† should be the de facto choice of destination for everyone. To choose to go to hell, with our without reasons for wanting to do so, plainly means going against what is conventional. Time and again, Huck has dealt with the part of his conscience that told him that keeping and cuddling Jim, a â€Å"property† of Miss Watson versus his natural sympathy for the man (Bennett 3). These and many other instances in Huckleberry Finn illustrate the clash between the obviously wrong societal teaching that racism and slavery is good and having sympathy and compassion for the slaves as bad versus the instinctive knowledge that sympathy and compassion towards a slave is worthwhile. In this paper, this clash between experiential knowledge, i. e. , knowledge gained by oneself through the exercise of personal logical induction and deduction gathered through experience, and intellectual knowledge, i. e. , knowledge gained through different societal instruments, shall be dealt with. More specifically, this paper shall address the issue of which of these two â€Å"knowledges† has more importance. Being an issue that is of no light matter, this paper would need to look beyond Huckleberry Finn for aid. As such, Philosophy, Ethics, and Education seem to be the most promising areas of knowledge that address the issue. Hence, this paper shall look in these directions to settle the issue. Specifically, this paper shall have the following parts: on wisdom and knowledge as personal or societal; morality as inauthentic or authentic; and educations as geared towards making the person â€Å"fully† come out versus education as socialization. The paper shall end with a conclusion. Wisdom as Personal or Societal Philosophy has dealt with the question on the source of wisdom a number of times and through different thinkers. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle are known to deal extensively about this issue, and as such, their philosophies shall be utilized. Since Aquinas is known for extensively working on Aristotle’s works, merging the works of these two thinkers shall not pose any problems. Before anything, it would be best to first give a definition of wisdom. At least in the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, wisdom is a kind of knowledge that is â€Å"of paramount importance in directing human existence towards its purpose or end† (Artigas 17). It is that kind of knowledge that aids man to be a better human being, not only by providing particular knowledge, but most specially a universal knowledge that speaks of the human being’s nature, purpose and end. In the end, wisdom ought to lead to the human being’s happiness, happiness defined as a life that is flourishing. All these ideas seem to be abstract, so it would be best to concretize a bit. At least for Aristotle, living a life that is full of human flourishing means living a virtuous life in a community that allows for the continuous development of the individual. According to the Aristotelian philosopher Martha Nussbaum, this refers to a life wherein virtues, human relations, reason and other physical capabilities are allowed to flourish by the society (Nussbaum 76-78). More concretely, this means experiencing real friendship, practicing justice, exercising prudence and a host of many other virtues that Aristotle spoke of in the Nicomachean Ethics in a society that value and nurture these. It is allowing a person to have meaningful relations, to engage in activities that nourish one’s â€Å"senses, imagination, and thought,† to have bodily health, to engage in play, to have autonomous control over one’s environment and so on (Nussbaum 76-78). So far, it seems that wisdom ought to be acquired for the benefit of the individual that would most probably emanate into the good of society. That is well and good, nevertheless, we still have not answered the question as to how wisdom itself is acquired. In this respect, Aquinas has an answer. Thomas Aquinas is known for the Natural Law Theory. The theory states that â€Å"man is born with the natural facility to know the basic truths or principles or the moral order as ‘the good is to be done and promoted and the evil to be avoided’† (Panizo 56). In this respect wisdom, i. e. , knowledge about what is good and what is to be avoided that ought to lead to happiness and human flourishing, is not only something that man is capable of; in fact, man is born with this natural facility. Human beings are born with the disposition to want what is good and to avoid what is evil. Thinking about it, this medieval theory seems to make a lot of sense. Is it not true that no human being ever does something which for her/him is plainly without good or any sort of benefit? Even actions that may be considered as evil by many still have some sort of perverted â€Å"goodness† in it. Actions such as murder, drug trafficking, etcetera, still give â€Å"pleasure† to those who engage in them. But, does this mean that these actions are morally good? Aquinas would not agree. He would say that though nature has granted man the capacity to know what is good and evil and to want good over evil, still, error may happen. Error occurs once the basic principle, â€Å"good is to be done and sought after, evil is to be avoided† (Aquinas 197) is applied. In fact, there is a hierarchy of difficulty when it comes to the application of this basic principle, the most difficult application of it called â€Å"remote conclusions† are described as â€Å"not easily drawn by ordinary people, for they involve education in theology and philosophy, and deep reflection† (Panizo 59). These involve judgments on issues like euthanasia, divorce, abortion, etcetera. We have reached a point then when natural wisdom, i. e. , wisdom depending on reason alone, becomes insufficient. Life is so full of instances when â€Å"remote conclusions† are needed and called for. The sad thing is, this knowledge is hard to come by and a human being is left with no option but to listen to the dialogues of the people in the academe. For Aquinas and Aristotle, experiential knowledge is not enough. It could only get us so far. This then brings us to the discussion of the place of â€Å"intellectual knowledge† in Philosophy. According to Aristotle, human beings need a role model to live a flourishing life. An excellent person is considered the standard for most of us who are still aiming for human flourishing, for a life of virtue. An excellent person is defined as he/she whose wishes â€Å"will be what is wished in reality† (Aristotle 65), i. e. , the wishes of the excellent person is that which is truly good for the human being. An excellent person is the exact opposite of the base person to whom â€Å"pleasure would seem to cause deception since it appears good when it is not† (Aristotle 65). Thus, modeling is Aristotle’s system of knowing what is worth imitating and what is not. To add to this, it must be recalled that for Aristotle (as with the other Greek thinkers), education has an indispensable role in bringing an individual to perfection. This is the very reason why the Academy and the Lyceum were established. In these schools, individuals from different cities merge to further their knowledge, to share each other’s knowledge and in this sense socializing each other. Hence, at least in Aristotle and Aquinas’ philosophy, though natural wisdom or experiential knowledge may be the starting point, this is not enough. Intellectual knowledge is still necessary since remote conclusions are always called for to ultimately be happy and live a flourishing life. Authentic and Inauthentic Morality Beyond the epistemology of Aristotle and Aquinas is the perspective that morality or ethics may be inauthentic or authentic. This is the very idea of Michael Moga in the book, Toward Authentic Morality. According to Moga, one’s sense of right and wrong can either be wholly dependent on one’s culture (i. e. , inauthentic morality) or it could come from one’s personal choice (i. e. , authentic morality). This is the very same clash between the self and the society that we have been talking about. According to Moga, most people ascribe to inauthentic morality. This is the sort of morality that gives in to social pressure, that kind of pressure that forces us to act and think in a particular way without exactly knowing why such an action or thought should be considered moral. We would not have to go very far to understand inauthentic morality. Most adolescents and teenagers are susceptible to peer pressure when it comes to many facets of their lives. The very persistence of racism and discrimination speak of a poorly reasoned morality that rest on social acceptance. In fact, Moga sets out the characteristics of inauthentic morality. The following are the characteristics of this type of morality. Inauthentic morality is characterized by being based on certain rules and values affirmed by culture; it is universal in its application, i. e. , it is valid for everyone; they impact individuals as set of morality that is external, i. e. , the source of morality is something outside the self; these laws are anonymous; the individual is haunted by fear and shame; the moral obligation is something that comes from authority; and it is fluctuating in influence (Moga 35-39). This is the sort of morality experienced by the typical teenager who follows his/her group’s choices. Such an individual follows rules not her own, a set of rules she may find difficult to follow since it is something external, nevertheless the breaking of such group rules result to fear and shame. This teenager considers the lead of the group as the one vested with authority to enforce such rules. Though this morality is most stark among teenagers, adults may very well be living this sort of morality. We would only have to look around shopping malls to see how many adults go with the flow without thinking why. Supposedly at the other extreme is authentic morality. This morality results from one’s personal decision to accept a set of values and morals after necessary reflection. Again, this sort of morality has characteristics: it is personally chosen and accepted; it is based on a rational appreciation; it is not based on fear or shame; morality as an expression of one’s freedom; and it is based on what one personally cares for, i. e. the very principles that one values (Moga 39-41). This is the sort of morality of individuals who have taken enough time to think over his/her morals. This would be represented by an individual who does an action and could very likely explain and be personally involved in the very principle of one’s actions. This would be the individual whose sense of morality is not dependent on â€Å"what others will say† but rather on a clear set of personally chosen moral principles. Though individuals must all aim for authentic morality, Moga insists that both moralities are important. In the first place, all human beings undergo the inauthentic morality stage where parents become the sole authority from whom morality emanate. Nevertheless, we should not stay this way. After being exposed to different sets of moralities, it is the individual’s responsibility to think and chose which of these moralities shall be made personal. Thus, at least in the Ethical perspective, the social and the personal ought to go together, though in the end, the social should be for the personal. Conclusion We have seen that at least in Philosophy and Ethics, there really is no real clash between the personal and the social, between intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge. Clashes happen in Philosophy when error exists in the mind and nothing is done to correct the error. This error may of course exist not only with individuals but also in groups such as those in the academe. Nevertheless, we have clearly stated above that intellectual knowledge is there not to ram down society on the throats of individuals but rather to further perfect experiential knowledge for the sake of human flourishing. The same may be said in the field of ethics. Both authentic and inauthentic moralities are there and both have uses in society. Nevertheless, in the end, inauthentic morality ought to be the material source of inputs for the eventual authentic morality of a person. Morality only becomes stagnant when there is no interaction between the inauthentic and authentic. To answer the question which of the two knowledges is more important, we could qualifiedly say that both are important as long as there is minimal error and that the ultimate purpose is human flourishing.

George Orwell Essay -- History Biography Biographies Essays

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair was born in 1903 at Motihari in British-occupied India. While growing up, he attended private schools in Sussex, Wellington and Eaton. He worked at the Imperial Indian Police until 1927 when he went to London to study the poverty stricken. He then moved to Paris where he wrote two lost novels. After he moved back to England he wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese Days, A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep the Apidistra Flying. He published all four under the pseudonym George Orwell. He then married Eileen O’Shaughnessy and wrote The Road to Wigan Pier. Orwell then joined the Army and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He became a socialist revolutionary and wrote Homage to Catalina, Coming Up for Air, and in 1943, he wrote Animal Farm. It’s success ended Orwell’s financial troubles forever. In 1947 and 48 despite Tuberculosis, he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. He died in 1950 (Williams 7-15). This essay will show and prove to you that George Orwell’s life has influenced modern society a great deal. Biography In 1903, Eric Arthur Blair was born. Living in India until he was four, Blair and his family then moved to England and settled at Henley. At the age of eight, Blair was sent to a private school in Sussex, and he lived there, except on holidays, until he was thirteen. He went to two private secondary schools: Wellington(for one term) and Eaton (for four and a half years). After Eaton, Blair joined the Imperial Indian Police and was trained in Burma. He served there for nearly five years and then in 1927, while home on a leave, decided not to return. He later wrote that he had come to understand and reject the imperialism he was serving. He was stuck...between hatred of the empire and rage against the native people who opposed it, and made his immediate job more difficult. Blair, on his first six months of release, traveled to the East End to research the English poor. In Spring of 1928, he took a room in a working-class district of Paris. He wrote two novels, which have been lost, as well as publishing a number of articles in French and English, and later became ill with pneumonia. He then worked ten weeks as a dishwasher and kitchen porter, and later returned to England at the end of 1929. He used his parents’ home in Suffolk for writing and earned money from occasional articles and teaching. Bl... ...o is never swept away by his imagination.† Of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fredric Warburg comments, â€Å"This is amongst the most terrifying books I have ever read†. â€Å"Mr. Orwell’s latest book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, can be approached either as a political argument or as an indictment of materialism cast in fictional form,† writes Harold Nicolson. â€Å"Mr. Orwell is in every way similar to Huxley, especially in his contempt for people, in his aim of slandering man,† reports Isaac Anisimov for the Pravda. CONCLUSION As you can see, George Orwell is one of the most beloved and respected authors in history. His works speak out against money, hypocrisy, poverty and injustice. His style has influenced many modern authors and will, most definitely, influence many more authors to come. WORKS CITED Calder, Jenni. Animal Farm & Nineteen Eighty-Four. Philadelphia:Milton Keynes, 1986. Meyers, Jeffery. George Orwell: The Critical Hertige. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975. Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1982 Williams, Raymond. Orwell. London: Raymond Williams, 1991 Wykes, David. A Preface to Orwell. New York: Longman, Inc., 1987. George Orwell Essay -- History Biography Biographies Essays George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair was born in 1903 at Motihari in British-occupied India. While growing up, he attended private schools in Sussex, Wellington and Eaton. He worked at the Imperial Indian Police until 1927 when he went to London to study the poverty stricken. He then moved to Paris where he wrote two lost novels. After he moved back to England he wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese Days, A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep the Apidistra Flying. He published all four under the pseudonym George Orwell. He then married Eileen O’Shaughnessy and wrote The Road to Wigan Pier. Orwell then joined the Army and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He became a socialist revolutionary and wrote Homage to Catalina, Coming Up for Air, and in 1943, he wrote Animal Farm. It’s success ended Orwell’s financial troubles forever. In 1947 and 48 despite Tuberculosis, he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. He died in 1950 (Williams 7-15). This essay will show and prove to you that George Orwell’s life has influenced modern society a great deal. Biography In 1903, Eric Arthur Blair was born. Living in India until he was four, Blair and his family then moved to England and settled at Henley. At the age of eight, Blair was sent to a private school in Sussex, and he lived there, except on holidays, until he was thirteen. He went to two private secondary schools: Wellington(for one term) and Eaton (for four and a half years). After Eaton, Blair joined the Imperial Indian Police and was trained in Burma. He served there for nearly five years and then in 1927, while home on a leave, decided not to return. He later wrote that he had come to understand and reject the imperialism he was serving. He was stuck...between hatred of the empire and rage against the native people who opposed it, and made his immediate job more difficult. Blair, on his first six months of release, traveled to the East End to research the English poor. In Spring of 1928, he took a room in a working-class district of Paris. He wrote two novels, which have been lost, as well as publishing a number of articles in French and English, and later became ill with pneumonia. He then worked ten weeks as a dishwasher and kitchen porter, and later returned to England at the end of 1929. He used his parents’ home in Suffolk for writing and earned money from occasional articles and teaching. Bl... ...o is never swept away by his imagination.† Of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fredric Warburg comments, â€Å"This is amongst the most terrifying books I have ever read†. â€Å"Mr. Orwell’s latest book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, can be approached either as a political argument or as an indictment of materialism cast in fictional form,† writes Harold Nicolson. â€Å"Mr. Orwell is in every way similar to Huxley, especially in his contempt for people, in his aim of slandering man,† reports Isaac Anisimov for the Pravda. CONCLUSION As you can see, George Orwell is one of the most beloved and respected authors in history. His works speak out against money, hypocrisy, poverty and injustice. His style has influenced many modern authors and will, most definitely, influence many more authors to come. WORKS CITED Calder, Jenni. Animal Farm & Nineteen Eighty-Four. Philadelphia:Milton Keynes, 1986. Meyers, Jeffery. George Orwell: The Critical Hertige. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975. Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1982 Williams, Raymond. Orwell. London: Raymond Williams, 1991 Wykes, David. A Preface to Orwell. New York: Longman, Inc., 1987.

Maya Angelou `The Graduation` Essay

P1- Summarize the essay and identify the author and title; Maya Angelou is the walking encyclopedia. She has astounding achievements to her credit. She is a great social thinker; her contribution in all the wings of literature is extraordinary! Welfare of women is very dear to her heart and therefore she is known as the Renaissance woman. Her inner world is very strong; when she speaks she mesmerizes the audience with the facts and figures and her oratorical skills. She has clearly crossed the mind barrier, she radiates peace, demolishes the structure of race-prejudice. The pages of human history daubed in bloodshed and coated with racial and ethnic prejudices, ask the crying question. How to make this Planet Earth heaven- like? The answer is simple and direct. Eyes full of understanding, heart full of love and the life that refuses conflicts-these alone are enough!—ask Maya Angelou—she is the living example of all these ideals and seen the practical application of them. She is born on April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri. She is the second poet in U. S. History to be given the honor of writing and reciting original work at the Presidential Inauguration in January 1993. She has written autobiographies, personal essays, children books, poetry, plays, screenplays, acting in films and plays, radio broadcasting, recordings, spoken word albums, article contribution to many important magazines and newspapers,   a linguist with fluency in seven   languages, honorary degrees of   many universities/colleges, and what not! She has lived through the crucial period of the American history when bitter race prejudices prevailed. â€Å"The Graduation,† essay shows the path of her growth during the trying time in her life. The white power structure in the South treated the black badly, rather inhumanly. The black people suffered blows to every part of their psyche, everyday in every walk of life. How local politicians used the non-political event like Graduation Ceremony to promote their own self-interests is highlighted in the essay. P2- Explain the primary aim that you see in this essay. What is the author’s main purpose? What is he or she trying to accomplish in writing this essay? The primary aim of the essay is recollection of her past, as a women belonging to the Negro race. Her writing, apart from the literary merits, seems to be simple and sweet, but behind that simplicity runs an undercurrent of steel-will, that sets a program and sees it through. Her toughened smile indicates the harsh realities she had experienced in her life. The greatest beauty of her writing is that she is free from malice. She advises you to live life in its hard trials, tribulations, duty and beauty. She makes her points by giving due weight to the pair of opposites and the need to understand and transcend them. Spirituality and love for humanity radiates throughout the essay. She says, without actually saying it verbatim, that unless the thought process of the Whites change, their action process will never change and the black race will continue to suffer. Only when the thoughts are changed, the mind is changed; when the mind is changed, the man is changed; when the man is changed, the society is changed. The laws are there, the constitutional rights are there for the black race, but their actual implementation being biased, the ground realities are not as they should be! P3- Explain the primary mode you see in this essay? What is the method of organization (mode) used by the author? It is an autobiographical essay. This essay is the product of her experiences in the College of Self-education (real-life situations) where her mind was her Principal. Her initiatives, her Professors! Her hard work her Tutors! She was an individual who would decide on a project; she would start, and she would finish! She is one of the rare souls whom God deputes on Planet Earth, to transform a weak, subjugated race into a powerful body of responsible citizens. Essays like Graduation are not the products of intellect alone; they arrive straight from the heart. One’s experience is precious and any author can not avoid the deep impact and influence of one’s own experiences in life. Maya Angelou is not exception to this rule. â€Å"She applies three rhetorical strategies-an expressive voice, illustrative comparison and contrast, and flowing sentences bursting with vivid simile and delightful imagery to examine the personal growth of humans caught in the adversity of racial discrimination.†(Maya†¦..) The Graduation Day was the historic event in the life of small black community-they were anticipating a great recognition, the second-birth in their life. She describes that emotion, how they were trembling within, happy with the sense of anticipation of something very big that would happen soon engulf their lives, their innocence and tension, the uncertainty within the certainty etc. She did not write the essay with her pen but by her heart. It has the graceful movements of the traditional classical dance. The language is colorful like the feathers of a peacock. The moods and emotions change from paragraph to paragraph, sometimes from sentence to sentence. She creates hopes, soars high like an ace pilot and then dashes to the ground. When you are readying to laugh, you realize that your eyes are moist. You wonder how a human being can be that cruel to a fellow human being. The Graduation was a community event for the blacks. A life-time achievement award! But silent internal mourning was in store for them. With that grim experience, they all became cynical. During the Graduation ceremony a white boy, is afforded an opportunity to speak, in preference to a blacks. Maya muses, â€Å"The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileo’s and Madame Curie’s and Edison’s and Gauguin’s, and our boys (the girls weren’t even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owensen’s and Joe Louise’s† (pg.6). But she regains her hope when her classmate Henry Reed sings the Negro National Anthem. Now Maya thinks, â€Å"We were on top again. As always, again! We survived. (pg.8). She compares the hard times of the present with the harder times of the past. The hallmark of the essay is the power of the language. It is extraordinary     like a brilliant painting in motion. Here are some of the examples:   Ã¢â‚¬Å"The children were excited and ran around in the dark. †¦ having neither lawn nor hedges, not tennis court, nor climbing ivy. Its two buildings (main classrooms, the grade school and home economics) were set on a dirt hill with no fence†¦ Rusty hoops and swaying poles represented the permanent recreational equipment† (Article: 2) â€Å"My class was wearing butter-yellow pique dresses, and momma launched out on mine. She smocked the yoke into tiny crisscrossing puckers, the shirred the rest of the bodice. Her dark fingers ducked in and out of the lemony cloth as she embroidered raised daisies around the hem.†(Article: 2)   Ã¢â‚¬Å"A group of small children were to be presented in a play about buttercups and daisies and bunny rabbits. They could be heard throughout the building practicing their hops and their little songs that sounded like silver bells. The older girls (non-graduates, of course) were assigned the task of making refreshments for the night’s festivities. A tangy scent of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate wafted around the home economics building†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Article: 2) When the Graduation ceremony ends, they return home, without joy. Like the ones back from a mourning event! P4- Explain the main point of the essay. Was the author successful in accomplishing his/her point? The main point of the essay is to highlight the social conditions that prevailed fifty-five years ago in the South in the field of education between the white and the black students. The fanciful facilities and luxuries the white children enjoyed in their schools– even the level headed Maya Angelou is driven to the wall to make the statement, it â€Å"was awful to be a Negro and have no control over my life.† She is happy that the black children and youth have made a mark in their life now. The black community has succeeded to a great extent in beating back discrimination. Their wings are strong now and they no more have to live the life of the bird in a cage. But, even on getting access to education, the job prospectuses for the black children were limited then. The South trained them in vocational studies, like carpenters, masons, maids, cooks, baby sitters etc. The White participated symbolically in the Graduation ceremonies and lectured on God, Southern way of life etc. She makes the poignant comment that the anticipated Negro National Anthem fails to play and what a disappointment it is for the black students!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ==============   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   References Cited Article-2: Maya Angelou. members.aol.com/sunny2345/angelou.html – 4k – Retrieved on November 27,2007. Article: Maya Angelou. www.mayaangelou.com/ShortBio.html – 5k -Retrieved on November 25, 2007.

The Social Influence Of Minority And Minority Influence

This paper will review the research conducted in social influence, specifically majority and minority influence, why people conform and the factors that make them more likely to conform. Conformity is defined as â€Å"a form of social influence in which a person yields to group pressure in the absence of any explicit order or request from another person to comply, as in the Asch experiment† (Colman, or Dictionary of Psychology, 2009). Conformity encompasses majority and minority influence. Kelman (1958) proposed three types of conformity for influence of a majority; Compliance, internalisation and identification. Compliance refers to an individual changing their public opinion or behaviour even if they privately disagree. Internalisation is the changing of public and private opinions/behaviours. This may be because the other opinion is more valued, which may convince the individual, and lead to acceptance of the other point of view. Identification is when an individual may acc ept influence to develop a closer connection or relationship. It consists a little of both compliance and internalisation as the individual accepts influence as correct (internalisation), however the reason for this is to be accepted / obtain approval (compliance). Asch’s study (1958) is a prime example of majority influence. Asch rationalised that if a direct approach was taken and the situation stimulus wasn’t ambiguous, then there would be little or no conformity. He created a simple task, relativelyShow MoreRelatedPolice Influence on Society822 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿ Police Influence on Society Police Influence on Society 1 The relationship between police and minority societies has always been a difficult one with many issues. Before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s African Americans were treated brutally by the police in the United States. African Americans along with other minority groups were often abused by police. 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