This is S06 Social psychology

Social Psychology Assignment
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Social Psychology Assignment
Part A: Describe the way culture influences aggressive behavior
Aggressive behavior largely emanates from what an individual sees around him or her, particularly from the close family and friends. In most cases, an individual who is raised in an area with high violence rate such as terror gangs can become accustomed to violence up to a point where he or she does not see it as a bad trait. Such people grow to view violence as a critical way of solving interpersonal conflicts (The University of Minnesota, 2018). In the same vein, a child who is brought up in a family with frequent cases of domestic abuse may develop aggressive behavior towards a particular gender, race, or social class because he or she is mentally wired in that specific way. Additionally, in some communities, people are taught a culture of honor in which an injury impacted on the emotion or body of a person is avenged. In such societies, minor disputes are viewed as a challenge to an individual’s social status and can escalate to big fights involving many people (The University of Minnesota, 2018). Although the extent of aggression may vary among individuals, culture plays a significant role in shaping how people respond to conflict and hence, the rate at which they demonstrate aggressive behavior.
Part B: Explain the concept of social identity and describe its components
Social identity entails attaching oneself to a particular group of people which can either be based on family, religion, race, or even a football club (McLeod, 2008).

Usually, ethnocentrism forms the central component of social identity, and it involves viewing one’s family or religion as being superior compared to the others (McLeod, 2008). As a result, an individual may have a strong tendency to favor those within his social group but discriminate the others. The favoritism tendency is called in-group bias and is motivated by a survival mechanism of views the others within the group as sharing essential values and ideology (McLeod, 2008). On the contrary, the concept of out-group homogeneity involves excluding and discriminating against people who do not share similar social group including cultural background, religion, or race. Often, all people considered to be out-group are lumped together as being wrong or dissimilar without appreciating their strengths or unique features. In most cases, this forms the beginning of hostility among different social groups.
Part C: Briefly describe five aspects and components of prejudice using examples.
Generally, prejudice is defined as developing a set of negative beliefs and attitudes towards a person based on their association with a particular social group. For instance, refusing to allow a customer of a different race to check into a hotel because of the belief that he or she is violent amounts to prejudice. There are different types of prejudice. Affective component of prejudice entails the attitude expressed by a person towards people of a particular religion, ethnicity, or race based on one’s feelings or emotions. For instance, a person may show favor to a particular ethnic group because he or she feels the group members are caring and courteous. Meanwhile, cognitive components of prejudice entail developing attitudes towards a specific group based on what one believes is true about them. For instance, one may believe that Mexicans are bad employees compared to people from other groups. On the other hand, behavior component of prejudice entails not only expressing the attitude towards a person but also projecting how one will act if given an opportunity. For instance, “Hispanics are bad people, and I will deport all of them if I become the president.” Closely related to prejudice is the stereotype concept. An essential nature of stereotype is that they are mostly overgeneralized statements which are negative and false (Deeksha, 2018). For example, calling a Colombian on the street to be a drug dealer is stereotyping. Although many global drug lords in the past decades hailed from Colombia, it does not mean that all people in the country engage in drugs or even admire the trade.
References
Deeksha. (2018). Stereotypes: Definition, nature, and causes. Retrieved: http://www.psychologydiscussion.net/social-psychology-2/stereotypes/stereotypes-definition-nature-and-causes-psychology/1372
McLeod, S. (2008). Social Identity Theory. Retrieve: https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html
The University of Minnesota. (2018). Personal and cultural influences on aggression. Retrieved: http://open.lib.umn.edu/socialpsychology/chapter/10-4-personal-and-cultural-influences-on-aggression/