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In this paper I will talk about my career and the path I will take to get there. I will discuss the undergraduate degree I want and the master’s degree I want. This essay will define my career path as a whole. I will also ease into talking about how I got to the point of wanting to be a psych major. I used these six sources to help me finalize my decision.
Towards the end of highschool, we were told to write our senior paper on what we wanted to major in in college. I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to major in psychology. Psychology to me is more than just diagnosing someone with something or “reading” people. It is more of an insightful guide to the brain and emotions. Over the summer, I decided I wanted to become a double major in Psychology and Pan-Africana studies.
These two choices mean more to me than just black studies and psychological studies. Combined, I would like to use my interests to give therapy and rehabilitation to black people. The therapy I would like to move towards is directly related to issues in the black community and traumas we may have ignored for too long. I have acknowledged that work needs to be done. I will use my gifts to help others.
The first article I will be reviewing is called, “Stereotypical beliefs and psychological well-being of African American adolescent girls: Collective self-esteem as a moderator” by Barrie et al. The article is prefaced by an abstract that reads:
“African American women are often times characterized by stereotypes that can be traced back to slavery. Those stereotypes have been found to affect many outcomes in an array of domains related to work, intimate relationships, and personal well-being. The literature does not address how these stereotypes may affect adolescent African American girls. This study aimed to fill that gap by examining how the endorsement of stereotypes affects the psychological well-being, specifically stress, in 144 African American adolescent girls who ranged from 12–19 years old. This study goes a step further to investigate whether collective self-esteem can serve as a buffer between endorsement of stereotypes and perceived stress. Using combined mediation–moderation model, the analysis showed that there is a significant positive relationship between stereotypic beliefs and perceived stress that is buffered by moderate to high levels of collective self-esteem. Implications for treatment and policy, as well as educational recommendations are discussed.”(Barrie,et al 1)
This article focuses on the stereotypes that black adolescent females have to experience and how the perpetuated lies affect their mental health and self-esteem as women of color in a time like today. African Americans as a whole have been labeled as lazy, dirty unintelligent and thieves. All of the things I listed apply to very few black people as a whole. You could even argue that blacks who fall into these categories are only living up to the opinions of society. “Although oppressive in nature, many people use stereotypes as 'social mirrors' to gain a sense of how others might perceive them and how they in turn, might view themselves.” This quote directly aligns with the idea that regurgitated thoughts shape people's ideas of themselves, which in turn makes them act the way they perceive themselves, which would be negatively.
I can relate to this idea because many people in the past have projected their negative opinions about black women on me. I was told many times that I was too dark to be as smart as I was. This is an outdated recycled slavery ideology which promotes the idea that intelligence belongs to white people. The further you are from whiteness, the less intelligent you are assumed to be. I have also heard the narrative that since I am smart, that I am trying to be like a white person. Once again, intelligence is not only for white people. So many people get harassed for being smart and successful and it all stems from stereotypes.
The second article I am reviewing is called: “The Black Gender Gap: A Commentary on Intimacy and Identity Issues of Black College Women”. The article is prefaced with an abstract that reads:
“The purpose of this article is to assist mental health counselors and student affairs practitioners to gain a better understanding of the challenges 21st century Black college women may face in their attempt to develop intimate heterosexual relationships with Black men. Consequently, higher education leaders have the opportunity to support Black women in their quest to establish a healthy identity by providing educational opportunities within co-curricular and academic contexts to meet the needs of this unique population of students. The implementation of culturally relevant interactive workshops, case studies, and conversations focused on the positive contributions and value of Black women may aid them as they wrestle with relationship issues during the crucial process of developing a salubrious evolving identity. It is imperative that college counselors and student affairs professionals strive to augment appropriate multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills necessary to effectively assist Black women grappling with relationship issues as they move through the process of identity development.”(Henry 1).
This topic is important to me because it is important that black women have the equal chance as anyone to choose a suitable mate and to know themselves. Letting black women get to know themselves can open doors for them educationally and socially. Forming heterosexual relationships in the black community has become a struggle in recent generations. Men also do not know themselves hurt and harm others.
Women are expected to take up for the man and accept his behavior and change him. A lot of black women are frowned upon for relationship candidates because they do not take as much of a man's pain from him. As a group, we have a lot of pain and in this generation, everyone wants to put their pain on everyone. With a mental health crisis going on in America, it is imperative that we acknowledge the source and send people to therapy. Young black women who are trying to balance school and relationships are having a rough time especially because the education system is not made for us. Our heterosexual men are fleeing to other races for “emotional support” and it serves no purpose in my opinion.
The next article I am reviewing is called, “The Social Psychology of the Black Lives Matter Meme and Movement”. The article is prefaced with an abstract that reads:
“Since the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a string of publicized police killings of unarmed Black men and women has brought sustained attention to the issue of racial bias in the United States. Recent Department of Justice investigations and an expanding set of social science research have added to the empirical evidence that these publicized incidents are emblematic of systemic racism in the application of the law. The Black Lives Matter meme and movement are prominent responses to racism that have animated intense interest and support, especially among African Americans. We summarize recent social science research on Black Lives Matter. As a first step toward understanding the social psychology of the meme and the movement, we apply the dynamic dual-pathway model of protest to Black Lives Matter. Examinations of the dynamics of real-world movements such as Black Lives Matter may enrich psychology conceptually, methodologically, and practically.”(Leach, et al)
This article talks about the start of the Black Lives Matter movement. It sparked a movement that spread across the nation. Black people have been killed and harassed by the justice department for decades and no justice has been given. The death of Trayvon Martin was groundbreaking because he was murdered for absolutely no reason and we have lots of proof that corroborates that. His death opened the eyes of many young black people. The long lasting psychological effect that my generation took away from that is that our black bodies mean nothing. The fear we have of police and authority in general is caused by the fact that we never get the proper treatment from authority. Some damage is irreversible.
I can relate to this article because as a young black adult in white America, I constantly feel like my life is not as important as others. We have no value amongst our white counterparts. Psychologically this is as scarring as the civil rights movement. Our youth are marching and protesting for rights that our ancestors fought for.
The next article I will be reviewing is called, “ Black people are convicted more for being black than for being poor: The role of social norms and cultural prejudice on biased racial judgments”. This article is prefaced by an abstract that reads:
“Black and poor people are more frequently convicted of committing crimes. However, the specific role played by skin color and social class in convicting a person has yet to be clarified. This article aims to elucidate this issue by proposing that belonging to a lower social class facilitates the conviction of black targets and that this phenomenon is because information about social class dissimulates racial bias. Study 1 (N = 160) demonstrated that information about belonging to the lower classes increases agreement with a criminal suspect being sentenced to prison only when described as being black. Furthermore, Studies 2 (N = 170) and 3 (N = 174) show that the anti-prejudice norm inhibits discrimination against the black target when participants were asked to express individual racial prejudice, but not when they expressed cultural racial prejudice. Finally, Study 4 (N = 134) demonstrated that lower-class black targets were discriminated against to a greater degree when participants expressed either individual or cultural prejudice and showed that this occurs when racial and class anti-prejudice norms are salient. The results suggest that social class negatively affects judgments of black targets because judgment based on lower class mitigates the racist motivation of discrimination” (de Lima, et al )
This article is proving the point that the stereotype of poverty goes hand and hand with blackness. People still associate black poor people with crime. In most cases these people are very humble and understand how it feels to not have much so they don't take from others. Sometimes people are products of their environment. People do not always turn out like the people they see but it can happen when you are in an impoverished situation. People look up to the people who have things they want. This is caused by a poor distribution of wealth. If everyone in an area has the same amount of money, no one would be getting robbed or arrested for trying to get money.
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